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President of Match.com calls eHarmony "ridiculous"

Associated Press reporter Rachel Konrad investigates eHarmony's patented system for matching people. [link] Yes, in May, eHarmony was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,735,568.

Not surprisingly, critics and competitors trash eHarmony's process as overly scientific--some dismissing the "love patent" as a gimmicky marketing ploy.

Ms. Konrad talked to the author of a dating book:

"In the long run, I can certainly see the merit in a questionnaire that helps you make choices about who you date," said Robin Gorman Newman, a Great Neck, N.Y.-based dating coach and author of "How to Meet a Mensch in New York."

"But it still comes down to attraction as the first step. It sometimes just takes simple chemistry to know when you've found Mr. or Ms. Right," she added.

And finally, she gets the opinion from Match.com:

"EHarmony makes claims that their system is the most scientific approach," said Tim Sullivan, president of Richardson, Texas-based Match.com, the largest online dating service, with 12 million profiles and 1 million subscribers who pay $25 per month. "But we find these claims to be ... ridiculous at best."

posted June 22, 2004