Text messaging spurs cell phone dating services

• Cell phones are becoming devices not only for reaching people you know but for reaching people you don't know --- yet.
• It was inevitable that popular online services such as social networking sites would find a home on cell phones as well.
• Though the United States was late to the market for sending text messages over cell phones, well behind Europe and Asia, such texting has taken off here in recent years.
• San Diego-based SMS.ac boasts tens of thousands of communities of users who share interests in topics including sports, music and politics over their cell phone screens.
• Dating was a natural outgrowth of such communities, says David Friedensohn, chief executive officer of Upoc Networks of New York, which has 40,000 texting communities.
• Until just a few years ago, users could send text messages only to subscribers of the same carrier.
• Promoters of the services say such issues are only temporary as cell phone capabilities improve.
• "We don't really see ourselves as a competitor of online dating services, but more as an add-on," says Jonathan Ressler, CEO of Zogo, a mobile dating service that started in August.
• Instead of exchanging e-mails, users are connected by a phone call --- within minutes in cases where a user accepts an expression of interest from another user.
• Ressler expects it eventually to cost $12.99 a month, including 30 minutes of calling.
• You do this by accessing the Zogo Web site and then scrolling through profiles, which include photos and a short self-description.
• Several minutes later, the phone rang, and I was speaking with "Callme," a 31-year-old bond broker.
• The advantage of voice over e-mail or texting is that "it's much easier to tell if someone is lying," she says.