College Students turn to New Website for Online Introductions

If you're crushing on someone from your college philosophy class, now you don't have to approach him in person to see if he might feel the same. More and more college students (and campuses) are turning to GoodCrush.com to make introductions.

The site is set up for users to communicate in an anonymous fashion. A cross between a dating website and Facebook, GoodCrush.com allows students to enter up to five "crushes" at a time, and if there is a match, they are notified in a congratulatory email (names are only given out if there's a match). Also, if you have a crush on someone but don't want to reveal yourself, you can bypass the matching process and send him or her a message directly (no photo or name attached) through the site's messaging system.

The site went live on 20 college campuses in February, and since then 14,000 students have signed up. There are requests from students at 80 more colleges to join.

The growing popularity of GoodCrush.com is not surprising. More people are using social networking sites like Facebook, mobile applications, and websites to find love, or to just hook up. Virtually speaking, it's easier than ever to meet people, regardless of whether or not you're in college.

But more to the point, GoodCrush.com is helping students avoid potential face-to-face rejection. When you have a website anonymously confirm whether or not your crush is interested in you, it's kind of an insurance policy for dating. This makes it a lot easier to date and to meet new people.

Of course, it makes it a lot easier to move on to the next crush, too.