Casual connections, everyone knows, may result in your meeting The One. That’s why millions and millions of single men and women are turning to a new generation of online social and dating sites to stir up some Valentine’s Day romance.

“In 1994, there was a stigma involved with online dating, so you didn’t tell people,” said Julie Spira of www.cyberdatingexpert.com. “I actually married someone I met online, and I told everyone it was a blind date. People were embarrassed.”

“Now, there are so many online dating successes that people want to share their stories,” Spira added.

Online dating sites like Match, eHarmony or PlentyofFish may have worked for traditionalists in search of love, but to-day’s singles are doing more then socializing on Facebook. Thanks to a monster online network called Zoosk, those on Facebook can meet and talk with users of other social sites, including MySpace, Bebo, Friendster and hi5.

“We had no intent in entering the online dating market at

all,” said Alex Mehr, co-founder and co-CEO of Zoosk, based in San Franciso. “It was more of a random coincidence. The project started as a Facebook application and caught fire.”

In just two years, Zoosk has become one of the top online dating destinations in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia and Italy.

“The demand for a social dating product was so high on Facebook. We were adding a crazy number of users every day,” said Mehr.

How popular is Facebook as a dating engine? Blogger Richie Santos hailed it as the new dating forum.

“The question is no longer, ‘Did you get her number?’ ” said Santos, who lives in Manhattan and writes the Dating Diaries blog for Marie Claire magazine. “It has become, ‘Did you get her Facebook?’ I meet you out, and I add you. Then I’ll post a mood or a cool song I’ve heard, and I’ll see if the girl I’m interested in bites.”

Social sites plus

The word Zoosk is meaningless, according to Mehr.

“It’s an agnostic word that doesn’t mean anything, for two reasons: We didn’t want to confine ourselves to one language, even if that language was English. And it’s a global brand. We didn’t want anything about dating in the name.”

Zoosk enables its users to meet and connect with others via their online social networks. Since it launched in December 2007, Zoosk has attracted more than 40 million users from more than 40 countries.

“Online dating is one of the oldest Internet businesses, almost 15 years old now,” said Mehr, 31, during a telephone interview from San Franciso. “We learned from the traditional sites and mixed it with what Facebook and MySpace taught us. You don’t have to log into Zoosk to check e-mails. You can log into Facebook, hi5, Friendster, whatever, and online dating is provided [by Zoosk] as an add-on utility.”

Zoosk attracts younger users, with member profiles showing 65 percent are below age 30; 24 percent are age 30-39; and 11 percent are over age 40. In addition, the male-female ratio is 50/50.

“No one has been able to tap this market because Match and eHarmony rely on traditional media — TV, magazines,” explained Mehr. “The look of the Zoosk Web site appeals to youth. It’s more hip and a little bit younger.”

It also requires users to find their love interests on their own. Unlike eHarmony, where users first complete an extensive questionnaire and then are matched based on the compatibility of their responses, Zoosk encourages users to proceed at their own pace. Mehr pointed out several approaches:

Sending a virtual gift — Thirty are available, including a rose or chocolate-covered strawberry. A unique way to break the ice and signal a potential love interest, virtual gifts on Zoosk can be purchased with virtual coins.

Capital One (After the credit card company that blankets the country for customers) — “You can blanket your friends with winks (sending an online wink — ;) — is a simple way to initiate contact between online users), but once you hit your daily quota — somewhere around 50 — we won’t allow more.”

“At the other end of the spectrum are people who know exactly what they want,” said Mehr. “They browse a lot but don’t initiate contact, maybe one or two a day.”

“The most effective way [to initiate contact],” he suggested, “is to take something from a person’s profile and use it in an e-mail. There’s also a ‘special delivery’ option that takes over the page with your message when the recipient signs on.”

Expert advice

After 15 years of online dating and 300 online dates, Spira netted four marriage proposals. Her bottom-line advice? Cast a wide net.

“So you’ll find someone who joins match.com because it’s big, or plentyoffish.com because it’s free, or a niche site that perhaps does not have a large membership base. I tell people to pick all three: a mainstream site based on whatever value set you’re looking for, a free site just to put your toe in, and then pick a niche site based on your hobby, career or your religious beliefs.”