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Lisa Bentsen's Single Search Matchmaking is the internet's oldest and largest compatibility matchmaking service for singles seeking committed relationships. Lisa is a marriage counselor, and offers free "Ask Lisa" advice from the Single Search site, as well as telephone counseling.

Single Search is a "reverse matching" service - you describe yourself and the person you would like to meet, outlining such areas as habits, interests, personality traits, age, weight, education, health and other relevant data. The system matches you with others seeking similar or complementary attributes. Then, it reverse-matches to ensure that both parties have their needs met. Lisa offers specific screening, weighted scoring and a major focus on mutual compatibility. There's also mention of a truth verification process, but the Agreement states quite specifically that "Single Search does not personally screen applicants, nor verify information provided".

Matches are run weekly, and you receive an emailed list of people who match your specifications, together with their zip code and the percentage of the match. The client reports themselves are accessed through a password-protected section of the website. The process is slightly different if a local office is involved, but that's basically how it works. Matches are made absolutely by gender, race, belief, age (plus or minus a few years), weight (plus or minus a few pounds) drug, alcohol and smoking habits, children (if you seek none), pets (if you seek none) and education, and all other factors are weighted.

You can choose how you want to be contacted by other members - call only, email/write, call/write or write c/o Single Search. You can join as a local, regional, Americas or Global member, for one, two or four weeks - if there's no match for you in any particular week, your membership is extended without charge. There's also a "Scholarship Program", but we couldn't see what that involved. Lisa claims to have 100,000 clients worldwide and a 50% female membership.

Verdict: A professionally-run program, which has been around long enough to have made 500,000 matches. We'd have liked to have seen some "success stories" on the site which is pretty devoid of content, although "Ask Lisa" is a nice touch. There's no indication of how many members are outside the US; all the local offices are in North America. The Registration form is pretty comprehensive, although very structured - no room for creativity here, but that's a function of the match system. All in all, great for US residents - others may want to try a week's membership if only to see the kind of person the matchmaker thinks is compatible with them.

| Cyber-Loving Personals | Singles On-line | Cyber-Loving Alternatives | Single Search Matchmaking |
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