1. Match.com - the biggie, 15 million profiles, top marks in many reviews
2. Lavalife.com - fun, a fee structure that reduces costs for occasional users
3. Plenty of Fish - free!

Check out this review: http://www.consumersearch.com/www/internet/online-dating.

How about Yahoo! and eHarmony?

One man who has used Match and Yahoo! quite extensively over a period of several years tells us:

"Match seems to be the Target and Yahoo! the Walmart in terms of quality of people there. Maybe Yahoo! is more like one of those auctions where they sell off old horses that wind up getting used in dog food.

"Of course, there are a bunch of people who have their profile on both. Me included.

"I don't know anyone who's tried eHarmony and liked it, mostly because the matches they provided were completely incompatible.

"I just chose Match.com because a friend suggested it. It's entirely possible I like it because I'm used to it."

The comment about eHarmony puzzled us at first, given that eHarmony is reputed to have more marriages per match than any other online dating service. Then we realized, our source didn't say that the couples didn't get married. He just said that they were completely incompatible.