Apparently Match.com’s new algorithm, Synapse (wasn’t that the name of the evil computer system from Antitrust) knows who you want to date more than you do:

2. People don’t know what they want in a mate
The new algorithm, dubbed Synapse, has “taken the allure of online dating and amplified it,” says Gelles. Instead of just running “a digital disco where it is easy to find lots of potential dates,” Match now aspires to “get to know you, and what you want, better than you know yourself.” And apparently that isn’t too difficult. A woman might say she only wants to date men in their 20s, but if she often clicks on 30-something males — or even if users similar to her do — Match figures she is open to older men. “When we researched the data,” says key Synapse developer Amarnath Thombre, it became clear that people’s actions and their stated goals were “very different.”

I wonder if the founder of Match knew his own girlfriend would leave him for someone else on Match–I bet Synapse did…

5. The success of dating sites lies with women
Match founder Gary Kremen says he designed the site with women in mind, and he really knew his venture was a success when his own girlfriend left him for another man she met on Match. “You have to design the whole system for women, not men,” Kremen says. “Who cares what men think? So things like security and anonymity were important. And little things, like talking about body types, not pounds. Never ask a woman her weight.”