The Online Dating Pool

Now that online dating has gone mainstream, most of us know or have tried the major players in the arena, such as eHarmony, Yahoo! Personals and Match.com. These love giants have run the online dating scene for the last seven to eight years. Competing against these gargantuan cupids takes some creativity, and it comes in the form of niche dating web sites.

Name one of your favorite hobbies, and chances are an online dating site is built around it. For example, online dating web sites exist for animal lovers, yoga enthusiasts, self-proclaimed geeks as well as atheists, just to name a few. And it seems the niche online dating market will only grow larger. Some experts predict the online personal market will grow to $1.9 billion by 2012 compared to $900 million as of last year. There's even a site using DNA samples from saliva swabs to find your perfect mate.

Is it better to have quantity over quality? Do niche dating sites provide a better common denominator for possible dating partners than the big players? Have you tried more specific online dating sites? What was your experience? [ABC News]