By Kelly Wiley

The dating game is changing.

Old-fashioned dating consisting of dinner and a movie, may not be extinct, but with the advent of technology, the traditional date can now be experienced through a keyboard and a computer screen.

With the help of Google, Internet surfers have an unlimited amount of online dating services to choose from like www.eHarmony.com, www.match.com a­nd www.perfectmatch.com. However, while these sites may be of interest to most singles looking for love, there is a new dating service designed for single college students.

Down to Earth (www.downtoearth.com) is dedicated to serving the younger generation, and Jacob Solotaroff, the site’s general manager, said they are reaching this demographic simply because their services are free.

“We created DownToEarth.com because there weren’t any clean, free dating sites. Our goal is

to create the Internet’s most respectful dating community,” Solotaroff said. “We’re attracting a younger dater, because as a free site we offer a great way for young people to try online dating for the first time.”

Solotaroff remembers college dating. He said like most college students, he simply went to bars and happy hours near campus every weekend. But every experience was the same, and he never met the kind of person he was looking for. Solotaroff believes this is why online dating could be beneficial in helping college students meet people.

“The fact is that as a college student you’re a lot more likely to meet someone going online than if you go to the parties with the same people or the same popular bar that you went to the last several weekends in a row,” he said.

Down to Earth was launched in January, and Solotaroff said in only a month, according to www.compete.com, a site that allows Web managers to view rival site’s ratings, they have gone from 30,000 daters a day to nearly 100,000, now receiving over 1,500 new members a day.

While meeting people in college is not really a hard thing to do, meeting someone who wants a serious relationship may be, Solotaroff said. Down to Earth allows students to upload photos and “flirt” with each other by comparing their interests with potential date candidates.

Unlike other Web sites that pick matches for members, Solotaroff said that students pick their own matches.

“First, you upload a recent photo of yourself and create a profile. Then search for others with similar interests,” Solotaroff said. “When you find people of interest, you send a flirt to them … Each time someone flirts, an e-mail is sent to notify the other dater that someone’s interested. Next, by exchanging messages, you and your potential match can share more about yourselves and determine if you want to have further conversations or meet in person.”

However, what makes this online dating site different from others, he said, is the fact that users keep the site honest. After finding a match and meeting in person, users can rate the daters honesty. Solotaroff said by doing so, this keeps Down to Earth “100 percent” real.

“RealRatings helps keep daters honest when creating their profiles and posting their pictures,” he said. “It works by encouraging daters, after meeting in person, to rate the accuracy of the information provided in the other person’s profile … The five-star rating system allows daters to score the other person’s accuracy from ‘Not Even Close’ (one star) to ‘True to Life’ (five stars).”

Overall, Solotaroff said, while the dating services on Down to Earth are free, it is up to the members to simply be themselves.

“The biggest piece of advice I’d give is to be honest on your profile. A lot of people sugar-coat things and say who they want to be, not who they are,” he said. “This applies whether you’re on DownToEarth.com or any other site. You’re there to try to start a relationship and who wants to start out with a lie?”