Huffington Magazine Issue 18 | Page 86

YOU HAD ME @ LOL and the University of WisconsinMadison found 80 percent contained at least one fiction. Yelp, for its part, acknowledges that many Yelpers have used the site for romance, but maintains that it is in no way designed for dating and that matchmaking is not something it’s built features to help foster. Though Yelp might be an unorthodox way to meet, traditional dating rules still apply. “My rule is, if I text you and you don’t get to me within a few hours, then you’re too busy to have time for me,” explains Grier. “Also, for me to be comfortable THE INTERNET HAS BECOME THE SECOND MOST COMMON WAY FOR AMERICAN COUPLES TO MEET. HUFFINGTON 10.14.12 meeting with you, I have to talk to you at night because if you can’t talk to me at night, then there’s something you’re hiding.” About a year after joining Yelp, in April of this year, Grier opened her Yelp inbox to find a note from a 31 year-old in Livermore, California congratulating her on having her post highlighted as “Review of the Day.” Grier “thought he was cute,” and they started messaging. A month later, they met at a get-together hosted by Yelp for its Elite members. “I guess you could say it was love at first sight,” says Grier, who adds that four months later they are a couple and “totally happy together.” Grier argues she’d probably still be single if she’d been limited to a pool of men that satisfied a checklist of attributes or had relied on sites’ “sophisticated” matchmaking algorithms — the same ones debunked by the Northwestern University study, which suggests Grier’s now-boyfriend might have been booted in favor of someone only superficially compatible. “I never ever would have been paired up with him on Match or Chemistry because we’re total opposites,” says Grier. Her boyfriend is seven