Sure, trolling for a mate online is easy; but it's also potentially treacherous: On the Internet, you can't tell if a prospective date is a dog. The good news is that Web dating profiles tend to be pretty reliable. Sure, almost everybody lies—but they don't lie by much. A 2007 study by Cornell and Michigan State researchers found that 81 percent of participants who used online dating sites provided false information about how short, old, or heavy they were. The inaccuracies, however, averaged only 1.1 percent of height, 1.5 percent of age, and 5.6 percent of weight—hardly deal-breakers even if you're searching for a towering, young 300-pounder.
You can certainly prep for the first face-to-face with a quick search for basic info (and outstanding arrest warrants). 
But don't ruin the magic by digging too deeply: Sparks are more likely to fly if you haven't compiled a phone-book-size dossier, says Todd Essig, a New York-based psychologist who specializes in technology-mediated relationships. "In the absence of real-world information, you're going to invest tremendous emotional energy in what you find online." Mutual self-disclosure, on the other hand, tends to build strong interpersonal bonds, leading to trust, admiration, and ultimately intimacy. Besides, reading your date's Muppet Show fanfic might end a beautiful friendship before it even begins.
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