Mobile phone service offers help to lonely hearts

LONDON (Reuters) - Lonely-hearts will stand a better chance of finding
a soul mate thanks to new mobile phone dating technology.

Would-be daters looking for a "significant other" may soon be able to
subscribe to a service which stores in their phones a personal profile
and information on what they want most from a partner.

When there are enough similarities between two people, and they happen
to be in close proximity, the service tells their phones to communicate
with each other.

Called Serendipity, the service was created by a team at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. The latter-day cupids
hope to offer people an alternative to online dating, the New Scientist
magazine reported on Wednesday.

Mobile networks have yet to show an interest in the new wireless-based
introduction service but many in the industry believe it is only a
matter of time.

 "When proximity computing meets social networking, very interesting
things will happen," said Paul Martino, founder of the tribe.net social
Web site. "The industry will go in that direction eventually."

BINNEH S MINTEH

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

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