Dating websites have suffered quite a brutal and unjust image battering in the past. They have been seen as the last chance saloon - a desperate way to find that special someone when all else fails.

To be honest, I've been guilty of thinking like that too, but according to a survey, online dating is not just for cyber geeks and can yield surprisingly good results.

Dr Jeff Gavin, psychologist from Bath University surveyed 229 adults and found that web dating worked for the majority of people.

A whopping 94 per cent of UK online agency customers who were questioned as part of the survey, said that the saw their "e-partner" again after the initial face-to-face encounter.

It seems that the growth on social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook and websites that re-connect people to old flames such Friends Reunited have stimulated a similar surge in the numbers of online dating sites. UK-based internet dating agencies have an estimated six million subscribers - a conservative estimate that is likely to be much greater.

Some people feel that meeting someone over the internet can be quite cold and clinical, lacking the warmth and intimacy of physical contact, which it is really.

Dr Gavin agrees, saying that dating sites provided very little space for would-be romancers to describe themselves.

The bond formed between budding lovebirds came from later communication, particularly online chat rooms which would lead to real life romantic rendezvous.

The survey showed that almost one in five of those interviewed had started a relationship lasting more than a year after meeting someone on a dating website.

Dr Gavin told the BBC: "Lots of people join sites because they don't get time to go to bars and clubs to meet.

"When online dating agencies first started they were quite standard. Nowadays there are all sorts of niches.

"There are gym-goers' sites, where fit people meet other fit people, Christian sites and university graduate sites - it's incredibly diverse."

A blogger named Adam Stevenson wrote online: "I met my wife on a dating website. We married last April and are expecting our first baby this April. We couldn't be happier. I've met the love of my life. My soul mate. I would recommend dating websites to anyone. They do work."

Surprisingly - and this one got me - the survey showed that male website customers tended to be "more committed" than female ones, as subsequent chat room conversations gave them a way to express their feelings which did not normally exist.

We all know men flinch at the mere mention of the dreaded C-word and avoid it like the bubonic plague. So if chat rooms make men more comfortable and give them time to get to explore a prospective partner, it seems, as the statistics how, they are more likely to commit to a relationship.

It seems that ladies out there who are looking for a soul mate that will commit to them and to the relationship, should now pick up their laptops in their droves and scour the furthest reaches of cyberspace for that special gem.