Single? Take this 1965 survey.
Operation Match: America’s First Computer Dating Service
In 1965, a group of Harvard undergraduates launched Operation Match, one of the first computer dating services in the United States.[1] The premise was simple, yet novel, filling a ripe market. See, at the time, most universities in the area were not fully co-ed. At Harvard, for instance, all women were enrolled at Radcliffe College, lived in separate buildings, and were restricted from using certain Harvard facilities.[2] To meet girls, male students would have to engage in blind dates and mixers, both of which were inconvenient and ineffective.[3]
Thus, juniors Jeff Tarr and Vaugh Morrill started Operation Match, and with it, Compatibility Research, Inc.[1][4] College students in the Boston region would fill out a questionnaire, mail it in with a $3 fee, and, within a few days, receive a list of compatible matches generated by an IBM 7090.[1][5] From 1965 to 1967, after appearing on CBS and other nationally aired programs, Operation Match paired over 100,000 undergraduates.[1][4] Some of those couples got married, and many are still together today.
From the present’s perspective, Operation Match was an early attempt to turn human identity into data.[6] Statistical and quantitative methods now grip our social lives, but it wasn’t always like this. Participants were sorted by religion, race, politics, smoking habits, income, SAT scores, and self-described attractiveness.[1] But, perhaps most strikingly, the survey tried to quantify the unquantifiable: love.[1][6]
Endnotes
[1] Operation Match booklet and questionnaire, Computer History Museum archive, accessed May 1, 2026. This primary source documents the founders, questionnaire, $3 fee, IBM 7090 processing, and the categories used by the service.
[2] Alicia M. Chen, “Operation Match,” The Harvard Crimson, February 16, 2018. On the Harvard-Radcliffe social setting and separation.
[3] “Operation Match,” The Harvard Crimson, 1965 coverage describing the “irrationality” of blind dates and mixers as the problem the founders set out to solve.
[4] “Operation Match,” The Harvard Crimson, November 3, 1965.
[5] Computer History Museum, “Making Your Match,” February 11, 2021.
[6] Eli J. Finkel et al., “Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 13, no. 1 (2012): 3–66.