That dating services sometimes make dubious claims should surprise no one, but rarely do their fishy fabrications make headlines. Unfortunately for eHarmony, a recent misstep has proved to be the exception.

The company's claim that it uses a "scientifically-proven matching system" has been banned by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority after appearing on a billboard in the London Underground.

"Step aside, fate,” the advertisement boldly proclaimed. “It's time science had a go at love."

In the smaller print below, it continued: "Imagine being able to stack the odds of finding lasting love entirely in your favour. EHarmony's scientifically-proven matching system decodes the mystery of compatibility and chemistry so you don't have to. Why leave the most important search of your life to chance?"

Think you can meet someone special without downloading a dating app? New research from UK’s luxury lingerie and swimwear retailer Figleaves shows that online dating is important if you want to find love.

January has been cited as “peak season” for those willing to try online dating. Match Group who own popular dating app Tinder expects a 63% increase in messages exchanged among its users. And many more singles will be joining dating apps and swiping left and right throughout the month, including those who have never downloaded a dating app before.

There are many myths out there about online dating, so we’ve decided to look to some statistics to separate fact from fiction. Here’s what recent studies have proven:

Recipient
Plenty of Fish

POF (Plenty of Fish) is the Editor's Top Pick - Over All Award recipient for 2018. There was a bunch of stand out dating services this year but we felt POF landed on top thanks to a list of improvements we saw in 2017 and the large number of our visitors who spoke up saying that POF was the service which helped them to find their current partner.

POF launched in 2003 and since then they have had over 150 million people register on their service who have had over 1 billion conversations using either the website or dating apps (available for iOS and Android). Being a free dating service helps them succeed since users do not have to worry if the person they are sending a message to can reply or not (on paid services usually only paid members can reply). With the tools POF provides and their ease of use, members find dates so quickly that in less than a month 30% of members have already found their match.

Following the announcement that it has launched a multipoint strategy to embrace blockchain technology, Snap Interactive has announced the first new product of the initiative: a video-enabled secure messaging system.

Called Backchannel, the service enables real-time text, voice, and video messaging between both individuals and groups. It will leverage blockchain and other decentralization technologies to offer unique security benefits, furthering SNAP’s mission to provide global communication platforms with an emphasis on privacy.

Backchannel will adopt the end-to-end and forward secrecy encryption best practices currently used by communication apps like Telegram and WhatsApp. It will also authenticate users with a crypto identity that requires no personally identifiable information. With no link to the real-world identity of its users, Backchannel can never be subject to legal demands for disclosure and no personal data can ever be stolen by hackers.

eHarmony will be running a free communication event this weekend. It starts Friday January 26^th and runs to late Monday January 29^th for eHarmony.com members only.

For new and existing members these events are a great way to try out eHarmony, especially if you are new to the online dating world. There is no cost and no credit card is required. All you need to do is create a free account and profile and fill in the personality questionnaire which takes between 15 and 30 minutes. Once that is complete you will receive your first set of matches (usually about 4 or 5 profiles). You can then go ahead and review each profile and send messages to those you like. Every day you will receive a new set of quality matches from the eHarmony matching algorithm for you to look at.

For more about this online dating service, please check out our review of eHarmony.

Recipient
Plenty of Fish

Plenty of Fish (POF) is the recipient of the Editor's Top Pick - Free Award for 2018. Just like last year, Plenty of Fish continues to give members a great platform to meet and communicate on. This year the statistics are even more impressive. POF now has more than 150 million registered users of which they add 65,000 new ones every day. On average 4 million users log into and use POF every day (website and app). With all of this activity, POF says, every year 1 million relationships are the result of members meeting on their service.