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April 5, 2006 1:59 PM PDT

Google accepting personals?

by Elinor Mills

From the looks of a new Web page on its Google Base site, Google must be playing around with personals. If you go to the main page of Google Base you'll see among the numerous categories--ranging now from coupons and clinical trials to events, jobs, cars, housing and protein databases--an area called "People Profiles." Clicking on People Profiles brings up a page with seemingly recent submissions (I should know, as I tested it by setting up a fake profile). Clicking on a result brings up a Web page with a photo and details like age, marital status, education, sexual orientation, and even phone number and e-mail address. On the results page you can also refine your search based on gender, sexual orientation, location and interests. So, maybe Google's April Fools' Day prank about launching the Google Romance dating service wasn't a joke after all. (Ironically, a few days before April Fools' I had joked about Google launching something called "GDate." But even if the company wanted to use that name, it seems they're too late.)

Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor.
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