All dating website use some type of questionnaire to get familiarized with their clients in order to make matches effectively. Every online dating website has some different technology behind their questions, these are called algorithms. For example, eHarmony, who founded the don’t try this yourself approach, requires their clients to answer around 250 questions about themselves in purpose of formulating some sort of personality analysis. eHarmony does not allow their clients to browse through people on the website; instead they send you a list of potential matches, this cuts down on the heavy traffic on the website and finds specific people that suit the clients wants and needs. eHarmony has found this type of matchmaking highly successful; with about 120 marriages a day. The success rate of this website is due to the combination of technology, pseudoscience, alchemy and marketing. Using large databases with business intelligence, psychological profiling, matching algorithms and a variety of communications technologies, they convert one time users into paying monthly subscribers. Let’s make some sense out of this… The questionnaire is used to profile the client; from there the site matches up the answers to an algorithm, and next produces a list of potential matches. They are not trying to find your clone, but based on the answers provided the algorithm picks people that will mesh well together. Every online dating site has a specific algorithm for their websites, all claiming to find the “most compatible” matches. How do you think these sites engineer their questions to find matches? What about people that fib a little on their answers?
Mitchell, Robert. Online Dating: The technology behind the attraction. February 13, 2009. Computer World. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9127711/Online_dating_The_technology_behind_the_attraction. Accessed on October 13, 2011.
I believe that 250 question is way too much. I personally would quit way before I answered that many. Is that even a effective way to collect the proper information anyway. I would imagine that after a certain amount of time has been spent on such a task the users responses would no longer be reliable. wouldn't users just start picking answers to finish as soon as possible? Personally I could see myself doing that.
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