On Thursday, a Web site called SpeedDate.com is hosting the first Seattle-area online speed dating event. Metroblogger blogs that participants will go on a series of 3-minute virtual "dates" (think web cams, microphones and instant messaging), and determine if there's anyone they'd like to meet in person. From what I gather, the service is fairly new. At the SpeedDate.com launch event in San Francisco, more than 1,100 3-minute dates took place and 230 people took part. Interested? Log on at 8 p.m. Thursday.