According to one recently-published survey, there are currently upwards of 40 million people in the United States that regularly visit online dating websites. Another 7 to 10 million users in Canada do the same. While these numbers do include people that log onto sites to assuage their curiosity or to see what they?re like, they nonetheless remain impressive. Nearly 50 million people using online dating sites mean that the number of potential matches that you are likely to find is quite high. In order to fully appreciate this statistic, think about the scene that you experienced the last time you spent a night out at a bar. Even on a busy weekend night, it is a good bet that only a handful of people there were what you might deem ?worthy? to talk to. It?s not likely that this determination was based off of anything terribly deep; rather, the three or four people that caught your eye were probably physically attractive and thus drew your attention. Moreover, it is doubtful that you were the only person in the bar or club that felt the same way. By the time you saw them from across the room, chances are that the other person or people had already been approached several times during the course of the night, and the likelihood of them being slightly irritable was good. As this scenario demonstrates, the odds are not necessarily stacked in your favor in a bar or nightclub-type setting. The proverbial pickings are relatively slim, and what is there is fought for tirelessly by the other singles at the locale. All of this for the chance to simply talk with another person, let alone hit it off with them. Remember, there always exists the chance that the man or woman that seems perfect from a distance will turn into a nightmare once they open their mouth. Needless to say, the odds are slightly better when it comes to online dating. With the sheer number of people frequenting the websites, there is a strong likelihood that you will find an intriguing person near your area. Additionally, casual correspondence via email means that you ultimately stand a better chance of being heard by the person; letters are far less obtrusive than hastily-shouted greetings at a club, and there is little direct competition with your line of communication. And what of the possibility that the person who initially seems so attractive to you becomes exponentially less so once you learn about their personality? Happily, online dating allows you to learn a bit more about the person in question before you even begin correspondence. No more crossing your fingers and hoping for success: with online dating, you?ll have a fairly good gauge as to the likelihood of a successful relationship before you even begin speaking with the person. Regardless of the type of match or relationship that you?re searching for, you are far more apt to find it via an online dating website than during a random trip to the bar. Ere you dismiss it as a technological fad, you?d do well to see what online dating can do for you.