An interesting piece of legislation is now blasting its way through the chambers of the Maryland legislature. This legislation threatens to lay waste to Internet social networking as we know it, if not for the inclusion of one solitary line of text.

While it appears honorable and well-intentioned on it's face, Maryland's HB65 (pdf file) is meant to place severe restrictions on the practice of international marriage brokering. If signed into law, the bill will place strict and deeply invasive disclosure requirements on the clients and providers of international match making services. This legislation does not bode well for the likes of eHarmony and Match.com.

GM may be facing bankruptcy, but Match.com, the online dating service, had 20% more members sign up this past December than the year before. Followers of the sector won't be surprised -- rival site eHarmony recently did a study and found that traffic to its site tends to move in the opposite direction of a flagging Dow.

So, at a time when people are cutting back in so many other ways, what causes them to put themselves through a process that can be painful, awkward and expensive? Don't they have enough on their minds without worrying about what to wear and how much to lie about their age?

Dr. Michael Cunningham, a psychologist, says that when people are going through tough times, they want someone to be with, someone who understands their concerns. Connecting with someone new can be a great source of support and that can feel good.

Besides, it seems some people may be using the dating services not only to find a mate but to look for a job. Someone who's out of work may even consider a "lunch dating" service, for example, at a time when career counselors advise doing everything you can to "put yourself out there" and "broaden your network."

So the next time you're feeling down, instead of spending more fruitless hours trolling the employment sites, try logging onto Match.com instead. Maybe you'll get lucky.

The clock is ticking on JDate. No, I am not talking about the biological clock of millions of single women who are positive that their lives will be over if they can't find Mister Right before they turn 30. JDate's problems are of the business variety.

Spark Networks Inc. (AMEX: LOV), the parent of JDate and countless other singles sites, is a vestige of the early days of the Internet. Heck, I bet half of the computers sold during the late 1990s were to single people looking for their cyber soul mate. That's why I got online, and sure enough after gazillions of bad dates I met my wife. Even then, JDate was an expensive service. I met my wife on AOL's personal site which was free at the time. The competition for the online dater has gotten even more intense since then which is why I found the report in the New York Times that Spark Networks was looking for a buyer not surprising.

Online dating services are a dime a dozen. They are fairly cheap to set up and maintain. Moreover, social networks including News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace, reportedly one of Spark's suitors, and Facebook offer fairly easy ways to meet members of the opposite (or same sex) as does craigslist. Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) may be interested in Spark to help its Chemistry.com service compete more effectively against eHarmony.

While I am sure that these companies would eagerly snap up Spark at the right price, investors may be ones who wind up with the broken hearts.