Gary Gervitz wanted a girlfriend, but with stipulations.

She had to be a redhead.

Gervitz, 30, a busy investment manager, knew it would take a lifetime of scouring bars and college campuses to find such a woman -- especially in the Bible belt.

So the resident of suburban Dallas fired up his computer and joined an Internet dating service. Within days, he began corresponding with Susan Crowell, a businesswoman who lived nearby. These days, her name is Susan Gervitz.

"I happened to have found the one girl who is a redhead, who is politically conservative, who has a master's level education and who is not religious," Gervitz said. "I got her and I married her."

For many businesses, moving onto the Internet has been disappointing.

Not so for the business of matchmaking.

In perhaps the biggest boost for dating since the telephone, the Internet has allowed companies to compile databases of single people in search of love, then, for $10-$50 per month, efficiently match the lonely hearts.

"It's a no-lose situation," says Richard Isaacs, a balding 60-year-old New York private investigator, crunching on a tempura shrimp at a Japanese restaurant. His date, Nuz, a slender 34-year-old Pakistani fashion designer, nodded in agreement. The pair met in May through a dating site called Lavalife.

"The worst thing that could happen is the person you meet is totally horrendous," Isaacs said. "You say 'Thanks very much. Goodbye."'

More than a dozen Web sites are now cataloging and matching eligible singles, giving the seamy image of Internet romance a lift in the process.

With a potential market of some 85 million single people in the United States alone, several firms are grappling to lead the industry.

Jupiter Research figures the 15 million Americans who use online personal ads this year will grow to 24 million by 2007.

Growth in online personals -- considered more socially acceptable than newspaper ads -- far outstrips that of personal ads elsewhere, said Jupiter analyst Stacey Herron.

"It's become a hip thing to do," Herron said.

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