Operation Match: The 1965 Harvard experiment that pioneered modern online dating

In 1965, a simple slogan hung outside a Harvard dorm room: “Your business is our pleasure. Your pleasure is our business.”

This marked the headquarters of Operation Match, the first computer matchmaking service in the U.S., which would forever change the way people find love.

Decades before the rise of Tinder and OK Cupid, two Harvard classmates, Jeff Tarr and Vaughan Morrill, sought a way to meet women beyond the traditional mixers with nearby colleges. Their brainchild, Operation Match, emerged from a casual conversation over drinks, evolving into a groundbreaking project that used a 75-point questionnaire to match singles based on personal preferences. Participants answered questions about their hobbies, appearance, education, and—scandalously for the time—attitudes toward sex.

For a mere three dollars, thousands of college students across the U.S. participated, receiving phone numbers of five potential matches, a precursor to the swipe-led dating world we know today. Though simple by today’s standards, Operation Match offered a glimpse into the future of dating, where computers, not friends or social circles, played cupid.

While Operation Match was successful, other pioneers like the U.K.’s Joan Ball actually started the first computerised dating service in 1964. Together, these efforts laid the foundation for what would become a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Dr. Luke Brunning, an expert in modern relationships, reflects on this transformation, telling CNN: “Dating apps may have reflected social change, but they also drove it. Today, there’s a prioritisation of finding the perfect match—something that didn’t exist a hundred years ago.”

Operation Match paved the way for decades of innovation, from the rise of Dateline in the ’70s to the 1995 launch of Match.com, which opened the floodgates for today’s vast array of apps like Tinder, Hinge, and niche platforms like Grindr.

Despite the ever-changing digital landscape, one thing remains constant: the human desire for real connection. While we may no longer pick up the phone and dial a match from a printed list, the search for love—whether through technology or traditional means—endures.