'Missed Connections' gives lovelorn a chance to find that someone who got away

She had long dark hair and was driving a black Mercedes. He pulled up alongside her in his burgundy Audi.

It could have been love at first sight. Unfortunately, love at first sight was making a right turn onto the next street.

"When I saw her make the turn I was like, 'Aww, I should have said something,'" said "Duncan," a 30-year-old Southern Californian who did not want to give his real name. "I should have said, 'Wait.'"

But maybe it's not too late.

For all those should've-could've-would've people who wish they could have a second chance with "the one that got away," there's hope online.
Craigslist, a Web site best known as a place to post free classified ads - apartment rentals and job listings are its forte - has a section called Missed Connections, and it works like this:

You see someone on the sidewalk, at a coffee shop, in a car - and you have a moment: Maybe you smile. Maybe you hold each other's gaze. Maybe you say a quick hello.

The moment passes, and so does the person. But you want more. So you post an ad on Missed Connections describing said moment, and you wait.

But happy endings depend on many factors.

For Missed Connections to work, the object of your affection must log on to Craigslist before your weeklong ad expires, click on the Missed Connection link, spot your ad on the page, recognize the description, remember the moment and e-mail you back - with a phone number.

Welcome to 21st century serendipity.

"It's funny, it's kind of like you standing on a rooftop and yelling across the countryside," said Duncan, who is an architect. "It's just being hopeful."

He's not the only one on the rooftop. According to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, there are 75,000 new Missed Connections postings each month.

The hopeful missives speak for themselves: "Larchmont Pete's Coffee: You were in a blue shirt and jeans, reading Kafka," reads one ad. "I should have talked to you." "I picked up your butter," says another ad. "Ran into you a few more times in the aisles, I wanted to talk to you, but didn't have the guts."

Craigslist, which debuted in 1995, is ranked as the seventh most popular Web site in the U.S. and 30th worldwide, according to Alexa, an Internet ranking company. It has more than 300 localized sites in all 50 states and in 50 countries. With more than 10 million classified ads and 500,000 job listings each month - ranging from traditional "for sale" ads to erotic services and personals - it also is the leading classified ad service of any medium and one of the top job boards in the world.

Buckmaster said he created the Missed Connections section of the site in 2000 because he was seeing so many of the regular personal ads devoted to such stories. "The majority of connections that are made, are made because someone knew the person who was being described," Buckmaster said. "There's a better chance that your extended network of friends are going to see an ad about you than you seeing it.

"It's still a long shot," he added. "But hope springs eternal, as they say."

It might be long shot, but it's not impossible. Buckmaster said there have been at least a dozen marriages borne of the Missed Connections page. Countless others who have simply found their connections, he said, left it at that.

"When you consider how many people are using the site - we get 10 million unique visitors a month - that's a lot of people," he said. "Some percentage of them are going to find success."

For the rest of them, the ads keep pouring in. "Saw you at Best Buy," writes one man. "Gaming sections. Saw your glances. Shoot me an e-mail."

"At Ralphs on Lincoln we talked laundry detergents," reads another ad. "I was thinking about how nice you were and wanted to try to connect."

The list goes on. And like shouts from a rooftop, some calls will be heard by the right people, most will be heard by the wrong ones. But that's OK.

"In a way it's like, for the hell of yelling, just get it out, you know?" said Duncan, who has yet to find his woman in the black Mercedes. "You never know."