Types (Niche)

Tinder just announced that it's reached a seriously impressive milestone: it’s made 1 billion matches between its users. That number was just 1 million in January 2013, making Tinder one of the most memorable success stories in online and mobile dating history.

In fact, Tinder has been so successful that even celebrities are getting in on the game. Although you might think it wouldn't be hard for good-looking, A-list of famous folks to find a date, it looks like they have a little more trouble on Tinder than we under-the-radar people would expect.

“We’ve had celebrities reach out to us frequently throughout the last year, sort of calling out various frustrations convincing users that they were actually who they are,” Tinder co-founder Sean Rad told TIME. “One impediment is that sometimes their Facebook accounts, which we pull information from, includes different names than their actual likeness… So [celebrities] were asking for the ability to modify their Tinder name and maybe have a verified badge.”

That's right – apparently all kinds of famous people want nothing more than to be able to swipe right, but their potential matches assume that the well-known faces in their profile pictures mean their accounts are fakes. Making it worse is the fact that Tinder requires Facebook account authorization in order to verify identity, and a lot of celebrities use fake names on social networking sites for privacy purposes. It's a combination that's almost guaranteed to make the average mobile dater send a profile straight to the rejection pile.

Rad and his co-founder Justin Mateen know first-hand what that feels like. For a while, they both listed themselves as the app's co-founders in their Tinder profile taglines. Again and again, they found themselves rejected by users who didn't believe they were telling the truth about their identities.

“It was awesome [to know celebrities are on Tinder] because it sort of validated our theories that everyone, even people of influence, need help forming relationships,” Rad said. “It’s important to us that our users know we are committed to authenticity on every level.” So with that in mind, Tinder is adopting verification badges like Twitter in order to confirm celebrity identities and allow the famous and non-famous alike to intermingle without fear of being scammed.

Of course, Rad won't disclose which celebrities are using the app, but he assures TIME that “These are A-listers.” Sochi Olympians admitted to using Tinder during the Games, and Lindsay Lohan told her Instagram followers know that she found her brother on the app, so you at least know that you stand a chance of meeting one of the world’s most talented athletes and one of the world's most famous redheads.

Bad news for Tinder fans: all those creepy people you've been avoiding on the app may now know exactly where you are.

It turns out the dating app suffered from a bug for most of last year that would've allowed hackers to determine the exact location of its users. And Tinder chose to cover it up until just a few weeks ago. The information security firm Include Security exposed the security vulnerability in mid-February, saying that anyone with the right kind of knowledge could "get the exact latitude and longitude coordinates for any Tinder user" provided that the app was running.

Hello, major privacy violation!

The company confirmed that "anyone with rudimentary programming skills could query the Tinder API directly and pull down the coordinates of any user." From that API data, it is then possible to triangulate the exact location of the user with a very high degree of accuracy. We're talking within 100 feet. And remember that part where they said "rudimentary programming skills?" So not only can creeps get incredibly close to you, they don't even have to be smart creeps in order to do it.

So much for the fun of all that mindless swiping.

It’s a bad bug, for sure, but before you go cursing the day Tinder hit the app-mosphere, Include Security also noted in an FAQ on its disclosure blog post that these flaws can be "common place in the mobile app space" and will “continue to remain common if developers don't handle location information more sensitively." Is that more comforting or less comforting? I'm not actually sure…

What I am sure of is that Tinder should not have failed to disclose the vulnerability when it was privately reported. Users deserved to know that the security of their location data was potentially compromised, even though the bug was fixed sometime between December and January.

Your questions now are probably "Has anyone actually exploited this?” and “Can I tell if someone has tracked me using this privacy vulnerability?" According to Include Security’s post, “there is no simple way to determine if this attack was used against a specific Tinder user." In other words, nope – you have no way of knowing if that slightly unbalanced-looking person you just rejected is about to come knocking at your door.

Good luck sleeping (or swiping) with that on your mind.

See a demo of the Tinder vulnerability at work:

File this one under “Cool Or Creepy?”

It’s no surprise that Facebook gathers a lot of data about its users, but what is surprising is the conclusions the site can draw by interpreting that information. Of course Facebook knows when you’re “Single,” when you’re “In A Relationship,” or when “It’s Complicated,” but it turns out the social networking site actually knows a whole lot more than that about your love life.

Facebook data scientist Mike Develin works on the site’s search function, studying how people use it, what they’re searching for that isn't available, and how to make it more useful. Along the way, Develin and his team noticed some intriguing romance-related patterns.

It starts with a period of courtship. On Facebook, ‘courtship’ means messages are exchanged, profiles are visited, and posts are shared on each other's timelines. During the 100 days before the relationship starts, there is a slow but steady increase in the number of timeline posts shared between the future couple. The peak is reached 12 days before the relationship begin, at 1.67 posts per day

At “Day 0,” when the relationship officially begins, a couple’s Facebook interactions start to decline. Presumably because they are now spending more time together in person, the happy couple feels less need to communicate online. The lowest point is 1.53 posts per day, reached 85 days into the relationship. Along with that decrease in Facebook interactions comes good news about the content: the interactions may be fewer, but they also get sweeter and more positive. Warm fuzzy feelings are dramatically on the upswing after Day 0.

On the not-so-warm-and-fuzzy side is the breakup data. The research team also took a look at couples who split up and got back together, and documented the saga on their profiles. The maximum, Develin reports to USA Today, was a couple who went in and out of a relationship 27 times in one year. Yikes. It’s a good thing Facebook also found an increase in private messages, timeline posts, and comments from supportive friends during tough times.

What all this means is that horoscopes won’t accurately predict lasting love any time soon, but Facebook might. "We have such a wide-ranging set of data, including on places there may not be data on otherwise," Develin told USA Today. And because Facebook knows so much about its users’ authentic identity, there is very little territory its researchers couldn’t explore. The patterns they identify could be instrumental in mapping human interactions and proving or disproving theories about relationships. 

For more on how to use this social network to find dates you should read our Facebook review.

Good news for single Apple fans: eHarmony has added a new feature to its iPhone app for version 4.1.

The app feature, called Datebook, is designed to help users plan, manage, and track their dates with anyone. Yes, that's right, I said anyone. Your date doesn’t even have to be an eHarmony member for you to use the app to keep track of them.

Vanessa Petrosky, Mobile Product Manager for eHarmony, says that “Datebook is the first eHarmony feature to be released on a mobile platform before launching on eHarmony’s desktop website.” As mobile usage grows, and with it the demand for mobile access to just about everything we do online, eHarmony is doing its best to provide resources to simplify and enhance the dating experience.

“Our customers have loved the eHarmony app for checking their matches on the go,” continues Petrosky, “and now with Datebook as a companion, singles will be able to schedule details for each date, bridging the online and offline dating experience.” And that’s not all – Datebook also helps singles make better decisions about who to date by doubling as a diary in which users can record their personal dating history and private ratings. “This new feedback feature also allows eHarmony to take the data into account and provide ever-better results for its users,” Petrosky adds.

Highlights of Datebook include:

• Add anyone: Add both eHarmony matches and people you’re dating outside of eHarmony to your Datebook contact list.
• Calendar sync: Any dates you enter are automatically synced to your iPhone calendar.
• Foursquare integration: Search for locations and get invaluable info provided by Foursquare, including photos, phone numbers, addresses, dollar ratings, and tips from other Foursquare users.
• Date history: Save all of your date details plus any private info you want to remember about your companions.
• Rate your dates: Privately rate who you're dating and where you're going. eHarmony will use the data in the future to suggest great date ideas tailored specifically to your tastes and interests.
• Date questions: At a loss for what talk about on the first date? Your iPhone to the rescue! Save your icebreaker questions to your Datebook Favorites, so you never run out of conversation ideas.

Datebook is free to all eHarmony users who register and complete the relationship questionnaire. And, of course, any information entered in Datebook is confidential and will not be shared with any of your matches. Want to give it a whirl? You can find the regular eHarmony app in iTunes here. Once you have completed the personality profile you will have access to the Datebook.

For more information on this dating site please read our eHarmony review.

I've met a lot of very attractive women who have come through a divorce or break-up looking to meet someone new. The problem? The men who are their ages (in their 40s and 50s) seem to want to date younger women only.

Many women wonder why this is. After all, they aren't looking at only younger men. It doesn't seem fair, does it?

There is an element of truth to this notion: many men do prefer to date younger women, and we see this reflected in TV shows and movies. It's not a problem for a man to date someone half his age, and in fact it's expected. Maybe it's due to biology, or maybe he just wants to ignore his own aging process.

There's also a certain amount of relief in dating a younger woman because she likely doesn't have the baggage that an older woman does. Chances are he looks for simplicity above all else - a woman who has no children, not much debt, or no messy break-up that has taken a toll on her psyche and finances.

So then we wonder - is it possible to find older men who are interested in women their own age?

Absolutely. Just because you've noticed a pattern in your own life or among your friends (or even in a Hollywood movie) doesn't mean that it is true for everyone. There are many single men in the world, and a lot of them enjoy the company of women their own age. You just have to know where to look and what to look for.

First of all, it might be time to refresh your online dating profile. Make sure you are focusing on what you want to bring into your life, not on what has happened in the past. Mention your interests, your career, or whatever makes you happy - and let that be the tone with which you craft your profile. Men can pick up on the energy and tone a woman sends from a profile or a first message. It's important to keep it positive so you can attract as many men as possible.

Second, I would suggest picking a new dating site. OkCupid and PlentyofFish are great for people looking for something casual (i.e. younger), but if you're looking for an emotional connection, it's better to go with a paid site like eHarmony or Match. OurTime is a good niche option specifically for older daters, so you know that your dates won't discount you because of your age.

Third, keep an open mind about the possibilities open to you right now. Say yes to more men that you might not normally consider, just to see what dating someone new is like. Allow yourself a little more fun in the dating process - it doesn't have to be so focused on the end result. It's a journey, after all.

“They both swiped right. (For professional purposes, that is.)”

That’s how TIME describes the meeting of Sean Rad and Justin Mateen during the first semester of their freshman year at University of Southern California in 2004. At the time they were both working on their own businesses, but soon enough they joined forces and became co-founders of mobile dating’s most impressive success story so far: Tinder.

In just 17 months, Tinder has become a phenomenon. “For the uninitiated,” writes TIME, “Tinder is a smartphone app that at first seems like a higher tech version of ‘hot or not.’ Users are shown photos of nearby potential matches and can swipe right to ‘like’ and left for ‘nope.’” It's now getting 600 million swipes per day from its obsessive 18-24 year-old userbase, and landed two of its founding team on the Forbes 2013 “30 Under 30” list.

Why did it become so big, so fast? Because traditional dating sites require extended periods of time and attention spent filling out and browsing long profiles, and in our speedy modern era we no longer have time for that kind of commitment. Tinder can be played – because yes, it is a game – in short bursts on the go, making it the most convenient way to meet your match currently on the scene.

Tinder snagged TechCrunch’s Crunchie award for best new startup on February 10, 2014, an honor it fully deserved for its mind-boggling success in 2013. There's no doubt that Tinder is the hottest thing on the mobile market right now, but the question is: can it maintain its success in the future?

“Nobody joins Tinder because they’re looking for something,” Rad told TIME. “They join because they want to have fun. It doesn’t even matter if you match because swiping is so fun.” So with fun in mind, the Tinder team plans to extend their reach beyond dating. The plan is for the app to evolve into a social discovery service, one that’s useful for meeting people beyond the romantic context.

“You’ll be able to eventually interact with friends for other purposes,” Mateen said. “So even if you’re in a relationship you’re going to be able to find good value in Tinder in the coming months.” The problems encountered when connecting with someone new are universal, whether you’re meeting someone with romantic, professional, or friendly intentions, and Tinder hopes to help.

Other plans for the future of the app include an updated communication system that goes beyond text messaging and further international expansion.