Borrow My Brain

Researchers at Harvard Business School have figured out what most users of online dating know — it doesn’t work. Online dating turns what should be social experience between two people into an artificial experience that feels like online shopping. It is insane how many roadblocks the sites put in place before you can really interact as human beings. Finding someone online feels more like searching for a book on Amazon.com test than any known form of social interaction. Fill in some forms, do a search, get a list of “products” to browse, send a bunch of emails and spend hours in chat. After days or weeks of this activity, if you’re lucky you’ll eventually get to meet someone for coffee.

The Harvard researchers have designed a new system called “Virtual Dates”, where the standard chat interface is replaced by a richer client that [provides] ” pictures around which people can socially interact, as if the couple is going to a museum together and chatting about the art work.” and has “a cute interface for people to converse, gesture, and even ‘chase each other.’”

This sounds interesting, but it’s only one part of the picture. You’ll still have to go through the whole searching, marketing and emailing process before you can initiate the “virtual date”. There needs to be a better way, that’s inspired by how people initiate social interaction in real life.

It remains a challenge for researchers and entrepreneurs to come up with a better version of online dating.  Someone can make a lot of money if they solve this problem well.