Heterosexual men looking for love online on Valentine's Day -- or any other day, for that matter -- may want to consider which sites are most popular with the opposite sex. For straight women, well, that may not be so easy.
Although the number of people visiting Internet dating sites is split almost evenly between the sexes, they're not visiting the same sites, according to Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence service.
Almost 51% of visitors to the most popular online dating sites monitored by Hitwise last week were male and just over 49% were female. Of the top 100 dating sites monitored by the company, women favored Love Access, which drew 87.4% female visitors and less than 13% male visitors during the week ending Feb. 10, according to Hitwise figures. SeniorPeopleMeet.com, CatholicMatch.com, and Don't Date Him Girl! (which posts more warnings than endorsements of singles and cheaters) also had a disproportionate percentage of women visiting, according to Hitwise. EHarmony.com's visitors were nearly 69% female, as well, Hitwise said.
Representatives from the companies didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bad news for women: Web sites drawing the highest percentage of male visitors were those geared toward gay men, Hitwise said. Women seeking straight men could try to get onto sites offering foreign brides. According to Hitwise, those get the highest male-to-female ratios.
"Gender differences are evident everywhere online," LeeAnn Prescott, director of research at Hitwise, said in a prepared statement. "While the larger dating Web sites have more equal male/female visitor ratios, this data proves that online dating sites must work harder to provide a critical mass and balance of members in order to attract additional singles."
Though it's not clear whether foreign brides, gay men, or straight American women are getting the most gifts on Valentine's Day, those who do receive gifts are likely to get "sweet things," according to a Hitwise blog. The blog states that home-delivered pajamas, chocolate-covered fruit, or organic flowers, are popular among recent Internet searches.
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