So the deeply crazy attempt to solve dating is now live in a service called SocialGrid, a service that could perhaps best be described as “geek code meets FOAF.”
You describe yourself (example question — rate your physical attractiveness on a scale from “Below Average” to “Model Looks” — no points for guessing the gender of the UI designer *) and it generates a set of tags you embed in your page. Google then indexes those tags, thus letting you search for, e.g. 5’ 6” brunettes of above average physical attractiveness interested in dating who live near you. (And a pony.)
A quick check of member pages reveals roughly (wait for it) 90% men looking for women. The other 10% is divided among men looking for men, women looking for women, one man looking for transgendered women, and one 20 year old woman with auburn hair and exceptional writing talent, who is looking for men and probably astonished at her incredible good luck right about now…
Oh, and in case you were wondering:
SocialGrid has retained one of the top intellectual property law firms in America. Everything on this site is copyrighted and trademarked, including our search and coding system. Our patent application claims coverage on searches for all complex objects using Internet search engines. Our goal is to ensure a search system that will be free to our members and keep individuals and corporations from profiting by charging for searches. We will marginalize every profit margin. There is no money to made in creating another ID coding system. The world needs only one system. If necessary, we will give SocialGrid and the patent to Google to insure one standardized coding system. Any copycats and clones will have to answer to Google. Please be advised that any copyright, trademark, and patent infringement will result in legal action.
So now you know.
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* There’s, more, much more, where that came from. The category “Hair”, for example, includes “Blonde” but not “Blond” and offers the users the opportunity to differentiate between “Blonde” and “Dark Blonde.” Inexplicably, there is no checkbox for “Dark roots”…”