I met a woman from France, of all places. I have never been to France, so as you can imagine, I met her locally. It was a treat, because she had a different set of values and philosophies that were refreshing aside from the fact that she was pretty and sexy.

When I told her I was writing about iDating, she told me that she "would never do that" to meet a man. I was rather surprised that anyone would cast aside a means of meeting others without knowing what it’s all about, so I explained.

I am sure she is not the only one who shuns this dating medium, so I will present my case for those of you who are reluctant, and I welcome comment to consider your concerns. Perhaps, once you read this entire guide to online dating, you may embrace it. We do fear what we don’t understand, so fear may be your reason, too.

When you think about it, there are only so many ways to meet your perspective special person. Let us count the ways: the match-maker (a remnant from the past though still practiced in more primitive cultures and by your busy-body friends who mean well), personal introductions, dating introduction services (more specialized recommendations based on personal interviews followed by matching traits), workplace meetings (getting more difficult with all the bullshit legal ramifications of harassment that have made it difficult to flirt or date coworkers without fear of imprisonment, the club scene (something better suited for the young), by fate (the French woman told me that you meet that special one when it is meant to be. I don’t know, I guess I do believe in fate to an extent, but I also believe you have to take charge of your life, too. Yes, you need balance.), organizational meetings (things like your house of worship or various organizations may sponsor social events for singles, or you may just meet a mate at a general interest functions) in the grocery store (great place to meet women), museums, and iDating. There are probably other ways to meet you love interest, but I can't think of any more because it's late.

Every medium has its pros and cons. You have to weigh the benefits of each and decide for yourself how to approach meeting your special person. Since some of these modalities rely on fate and only fate, you decide if you want to stay at home and wait or if you want to take the bull by the horns (how many expressions are there anyway?) and help fate bring that special someone to your door.

iDating allows you to take charge. Even if you don’t find a date, a least you are actively seeking Susan or Sam or whoever. The cool thing about iDating over many other modalities is that you get an instant chemistry test by virtue of the fact that there are little pictures of the people you are considering.

As shallow as you might think I am for bringing up chemistry, you are probably just as shallow. Sure, you can fall in love with someone that isn’t beautiful. After all, haven’t we drummed that into our kids from childhood with stories like Beauty and the Beast? Well, I can only speak for myself, but I can tell you, I prefer the beauty. And so do you!

It is so very much human nature to be attracted to certain things based on what they look like. You do this all the time when you chose furniture, buy clothing, flowers, fruit and just about everything. Ugly clothing will cover your private parts, it gets the job done, but that doesn’t mean you buy them. Same with girl watching and guy ogling (I created the latter expression, while girl watching was invented in my youth by others - the subject of a popular song, before I became so clever and inventive). I think I may just write a song for a female singer and call it, I’m a Guy Ogler. This is ADD as you may notice I keep losing focus).

You stare at people that appeal to you. That is called chemistry and it is a necessary component of choosing a mate. Shallow is if "chemistry" is all you base your choice upon, and that would be downright stupid – like marrying for money – wait, what’s wrong with that? You know I am kidding. You need all the good human components like kindness, good heart, compassionate, caring, honest, moral, and mentally stable – I could go on and on, but you know what I am talking about.

So, iDating provides you with an opportunity to rule out those with whom you have no chemistry, and as a bonus, you get to read all the things they say about themselves to woo you. And let me tell you right now, the visual chemistry thing may not be everything, but it sure as hell doesn’t lie like some of the entries you will read on iDating sites. For a fact, I know a predator who had the audacity to write on his profile that honesty was an important virtue to him.

Nothing is fool-proof, but at least you can see what you get - well, not always - make sure you go to the section on photographs and usernames.

Internet dating offers many, many choices. The medium has become so popular that you if you pick the right site, you can find a date in just about any city in most countries. Sure, there are a whole lot of frogs out there and you may have to have coffee or a meal or some nice flies with a few of them, but it sure beats a formal blind date that you know you have no interest the minute they come to the door.

The monthly cost of Internet dating is less than you would pay for one date a month with that frog, and it will be well worth avoiding the lost time a bad date uses up. This doesn’t mean you won’t go on a bunch of bad iDates. You probably will, because finding the right person for you is not an easy task, but you can have many choices of pre-profiled people to choose from and that improves your odds of finding a good match. Just don’t allow yourself to get too needy or too desperate - it will blind your soul and you may end up with a bad choice.