Computerized on-line dating service for searching and matching people

In an on-line dating service, a database of subscriber information is searched to find at least one subscriber matching user search criteria. The subscriber information includes preferences of subscribers to the service. Personal preferences for a user are obtained as search criteria. The personal preferences and the subscriber information include at least: a gender preference; a geographic location preference; an age preference; appearance preferences; religious belief preferences; educational level preferences; and a goal preference, and the goal preference is one of "romance"; "friendship" or "a walk on the wild side", the geographic location preference is at least one of a postal code, a country, a city, a suburb, a block, or a street The subscriber information includes a date of last payment of a use fee by each subscriber and a date of last updating of a personal profile by each subscriber. The database is repeatedly searched for records matching the personal preferences of the user by at least a percentage match parameter value. The percentage match parameter is reduced by a value of say 10%, until at least a required number of matching records are found.