It starts with a flirt.
It's not as nerve-wracking as it seems.
It only takes the click of a button.
But who knows? Soon it might lead to a Facebook friendship, a phone chat, a date or a relationship.
DownToEarth.com is a dating Web site geared toward college students, and it is the seventh largest free dating site, said Jacob Solotaroff, the site's general manager.
Since its launch in January, the site has attracted more than 100,000 daters, with 1,500 people joining daily, he said.
There are 200 Gainesville singles on the site and more than 2,000 within two-and-a-half hours of the city, Sotolaroff said. There are more than 23,000 people between 18 and 25, he said.
"As a college student you're a lot more likely to meet someone going online than if you go to parties with the same people or the same popular bar that you went to the last several weekends in a row," he said.
When the site's construction began in 2008, there weren't any clean, free dating sites, Sotolaroff said.
"I was shocked when I first found out that on some major free sites you can say you are married right on the registration form," he said. "They're actively encouraging cheating."
While the site monitors lewd behavior, members also report each other through a rating system.
After daters meet, they can rate the accuracy of each other's profiles. UF student Kaitlyn Cava said she had never thought about joining a dating Web site.
"I might if it was a student program where I would have the opportunity to meet men I actually have commonalities with," she said.
