An improved method of facilitating contact between mutually interested people takes advantage of existing contact lists such as those on social networking sites, instant messaging programs, or cell phones. A program is integrated into one or more of those technologies, allowing the user to characterize each contact on the basis of the user's level of interest in that contact as a date. The program keeps these rankings secret until two users indicate an interest in each other that surpasses a certain threshold. The users are then notified of the mutual interest. Ads and dating advice are sent along with the notification.