Feb. 20, 2006 issue - It's been nearly a decade since Meg Ryan curled up with her computer, yearning to hear just three little words: "You've got mail." The world of Internet dating has exploded since then, growing both darker and more hopeful than Ryan's Kathleen Kelly, in her innocence, could ever have imagined. And, not surprisingly, the baby boomers are playing an important role. According to JupiterResearch, 15 percent of Internet users between the ages of 45 and 54 browsed dating sites last year-almost as much as the average online user.

Early on, dating sites were for the young and reckless-who knew what kind of creeps were out there?-but now, as Internet dating has become more established and the number of people joining sites has leveled off, single boomers are a hot commodity. The number of boomers visiting Lavalife.com, a site known for its young and urban clientele, has grown 39 percent over the last three years, while at Match.com, the first mega singles database to hit the scene, in 1995, the 50-and-older crowd is the fastest-growing segment.

The Internet has special appeal for baby boomers, an impatient lot used to getting their way. Internet dating is quick, it's efficient-and because ideal mates exist in a virtual universe, browsers can fantasize about a prospect without having to deal with a real person. That, in a nutshell, is the biggest impediment to finding true happiness on the Web, says Dr. Frank Pittman, a family therapist based in Atlanta. A soulmate, says Pittman, "is the dumbest thing people can look for."

Never-marrieds tend to migrate to the bigger sites like Match.com and Yahoo Personals, but divorced boomers tend to be pickier-and less obsessed with physical perfection. These folks prefer sites that link them with people who have common interests or habits, such as SciConnect.com (more than 60 percent of its science nerds are 40 to 59). Boomers searching for same-age partners can comb through sites like PerfectMatch.com (63 percent are 35 to 60) and PrimeSingles.net, a 50-plus site whose membership grew 39 percent in 2005. "As people get older, they definitely start dropping a lot of the look requirements they have in their mind," says Joe Tracy, publisher of the Web-based Online Dating Magazine. "They're more successful at finding what they want, and that's why they do well with personality sites that match them; it's easier for them to skip over the players."

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