Nowadays, millions of people all over the world use online
matchmaking service in search of a partner and romance. They typically answer a
questionnaire and spend a little cash. If all goes right, the computer will be
your Cupid and find your soul mate.
Computer dating began back in 1965 when two Harvard
undergraduates were talking on a dateless Saturday night. Jeff Tarr and Vaughan
Morrill came up with the original idea of using the computer to arrange dates
for compatible couples. And so Operation Match was born. Tarr recalls, “The
goal was not to make money, but to have some fun and to meet some interesting
ladies.”
The two friends created a questionnaire that asked about
one’s ideal partner. The questions asked about
typical things like height and
weight but also probed how a person would react in a hypothetical situation.
The questionnaire they wrote was both “scientific” and fun to fill out. People
who replied paid $3 to participate.
Tarr and Morrill knew nothing about computers. So Tarr paid
$100 to a computer science student to write a program code designed to match up
questionnaires. All the data from the questionnaires had to be transferred to
punch cards. The team rented a room-sized computer and took six weeks to
produce a match list. Questionnaire participants then received a letter saying
who they were matched to, along with phone numbers. Most were very pleased. One
student got 100 possible matches. One of then was her boyfriend!
The concept of using a computer for romance was viewed both
negatively and positively in the mid-60s. There was a belief that using
computers would take all of the romance out of dating. But the idea of seding
computers at that time seemed very modern. Thanks to publicity in Look magazine
and appearances on a few television shows, Operation Match continued to grow.
In its first year, the service ended up with 7,800 respondents. By 1968,
Operation Match had more than a million respondents, and the mail was coming
from colleges nationwide. Jeff Tarr and Vaughan Morrill sold the company to
investors, who used the technology to match college roommates.
Tarr and Marrill’s computer dating was an idea before its
time. When the personal computer became popular, electronic matchmaking became
more common. Then the introduction of the Internet also increased the creation
of many new dating services with customers numbering in the tens of millions.
They all run on essentially the same principles as Operation Match, but the
technology is much more sophisticated-and certainly doesn’t rely on punch
cards!
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