Review on matrimonial information systems and services - an Indian perspective

Abstract

Marriage information has always been an integral part of the knowledge base in any civilized society. Usually some agencies and other de-institutionalized sources become operative in producing and transferring great variety of matrimonial information. In recent time, online matrimony portals accelerate the opportunities of providing newer matrimony services for sharing matrimonial information more comfortably and selectively, though often criticized in terms of adequacy and authenticity of such information. This paper aims to present a brief account on marriage information systems and services with reference to India, thus provide glimpses of popular matrimony sites emerged in last two decades. It evaluates the usefulness and web-metrics as well as popularity of broad-spectrum matrimony portals; those have become accessible to diverse Indian communities, and beyond the geographical boundaries. It emphasizes on proper coordination and standardization among the service portals toward developing a comprehensive information system for potential marriage-information seekers in national, regional, and local level. New policy initiatives and technological capabilities might provide more effective platform is suggested to reveal a new matrimony space in India.