Just Between You, Me and the Internet

Say you’ve got a crush--a big one--but you don’t know if the object of your affection has one back. An ambitious new Internet service called eCRUSH (https://www.ecrush.com) wants to help by acting as a kind of crush clearinghouse.

If you log onto the Web site and enter the names of those individuals you are romantically interested in, the site’s search engine will look for matches. If you’re lucky, whoever you listed also named you, and you’ll be well on your way to a lifetime of unmitigated bliss.

If not, the site’s co-founders suggest you share the misery. Or at least visit other pages on the site, like the self-explanatory HorrorDate, or FantasyCrush, where you can torture yourself by learning which celebrity has the most admirers.

The site was founded earlier this year by Redondo Beach entrepreneur Clark Benson and terminally single Chicagoan Karen DeMars. “In today’s fast-moving culture, more people are finding love in their close circle of friends and don’t want to risk those relationships unless they are pretty sure the feelings are mutual,” says Benson. “ECrush gives people the chance to test those feelings in total safety.”

Your crush, Benson assures, is completely confidential. Benson asks, “Wouldn’t life be easier if people had some way of finding out what the other side was thinking?”