Just as if you were answering a personal ad in the paper, you can search on Yahoo! Personals to meet people and connect romantically. To make a good match, it's helpful to know how to go about doing a good search, taking advantage of the site's filtered search, keyword search and Matches by Mail.
Narrow it Down with a New Search
Begin your hunt for a mate by searching on Yahoo! Personals. Log onto your profile on the Personals home page. Click "Search" in the links on the upper-right corner. Click the "New Search" tab and enter the qualities you are looking for in a person. Here you can narrow it down by age and location, even adding criteria such as body type, ethnicity and education. Once you're satisfied with the search criteria, click "Find My Match." This way you don't have to spend hours poring through profiles that don't interest you.
One-Click Matches
If you want to make it even more automatic, click the one-click "We Match" or "I Match" links. These will pull information from your Personals profile to find matches. "We Match" will find profiles of people who meet your criteria and who are looking for someone with your qualities. "I Match" just pulls people who are looking for someone with your qualities.
Keyword Search
Click the "Keyword Search" tab to search for profiles based on certain keywords in their profiles. For example, look for someone who loves dogs or regularly exercises. Just enter "exercise" or "dogs" in the search box. You can also specify basic criteria in addition to the keyword.
Matches by Mail
Instead of searching profiles for hours each day, you can have matches sent to you in your email. To set up Matches by Mail, create a saved search. This will save the criteria that you regularly search for. To do so, click the "Search" link and then the "New Search" tab. Click the "Add More Search Criteria" button and fill out the search form, specifying the criteria you want to save. At the bottom of the screen, under "Search Name," enter a name under which you can save the search. Click "Find Match." On a new screen, it will prompt you to confirm that you are saving the search. On the following screen, it will ask you if you want to set up Matches by Mail. Set up your email address and how often you want to receive the matches.
Update your Matches by Mail settings at any time by logging onto Yahoo! Personals and clicking the "Mailbox" link. Click "Mailbox Options" and choose "Matches by Mail." Change your options and click "Save Options."
