Dating Services

eHarmony is offering a 7 day free trial this week to celebrate New Years here in the United States and Canada. It starts Wednesday December 30th, 2015 and ends on Tuesday January 5th, 2016.

It's time for New Years resolutions and for single men and women, finding a compatible partner is usually high on the list. During the Christmas break and right up to Valentines Day is the busiest time for online dating services. With eHarmony's positive reputation of matchmaking it is an extremely popular choice for singles. This is a good for you as it means their are a lot of potential matches using the service now.

With eHarmony's free trial, all members can communicate for free with no credit card required. All you need to do is create an account and fill in the eHarmony questionnaire which asks you about what you like in a person and questions designed to quantify your personality traits. The questionnaire can takes about 30 minutes to complete and once finished you are given your first set of matches which have been selected by eHarmony's matching algorithm. The algorithm is designed to match members together who have the best chance of creating a long-term relationship. You can then review your matches and then start the communication process with the ones you like. eHarmony free trials do not include the secure call feature (a phone service), photos, or skipping straight to email. You will have to purchase a full membership to have access to these features.

For more information about this dating service which specializes in long-term relationships, you can read our eHarmony review.

When you're as trendsetting as Tinder, you're bound to inspire copy cats. Coffee Meets Bagel is the latest dating service to pull a Tinder-esque move, launching the ‘Send A Woo’ feature that allows users to express extra interest in a potential match.

Tinder debuted its 'Super Like' feature a few months ago to a flurry of media attention. Users swipe up to Super Like someone, indicating higher than average interest in their profile. Ingeniously, Super Like can only be used on one profile per day, making it actually feel like a special gesture.

Coffee Meets Bagel's 'Send A Woo' operates on a similar principle. The goal is to stand out from the sea of other suitors. “Woo your Bagel to get noticed faster,” explains the app. “Send more Woos to show more interest.”

Because of Coffee Meets Bagel's unique matching system, 'Send A Woo' stands to make even more of an impact that Tinder's Super Like. CMB users are shown only one match per day. If both users like each other, the app connects them in a text conversation. Each match expires after 24 hours.

Here's where 'Send A Woo' could come in handy. You only have 24 hours to get an intriguing match to like you back. If you don't, they disappear forever and you have no other potential dating options on Coffee Meets Bagel for the rest of the day. Using the 'Send A Woo' feature could be the extra special something that gets you noticed and makes magic happen before your time is up.

CMB users earn 'beans' (as in 'coffee beans') that unlock more features. Beans can also be purchased in the 'Bean Shop.' Beans are required in order to send woos so, like Tinder's one-Super-Like-per-day scheme, it feels special in order to receive one. You know the sender has gone out of their way to catch your attention.

Founder and CEO Dawoon Kang told TechCrunch that January is one of the busiest times for online dating, and that the introduction of ‘Send a Woo’ is meant not only to help users find more meaningful connections, but also to help them have more meaningful conversations after those connections are made.

'Send A Woo' is only in its infancy, but in beta testing users who tried the feature saw 3x more matches than those who didn't. Tinder saw similar numbers with Super Like, so expect to see more features like this in the future.

If you'd like to try out Coffee Meets Bagel for iOS or Android, check our our review.

For half a decade, Match.com has celebrated dating with America’s most comprehensive study on singles. This year's annual analysis surveyed 5,600 singles from all ages, ethnicities, incomes and walks of life. What it found is a new dating landscape that's laying tired stereotypes to rest.

The days of macho men and dependent women are history. Men are increasingly seeking out independent female partners and women are setting the tone in relationships. The 'Singles in America' study calls it “The Clooney Effect.” According to the study, the majority of single women in 2015:

• Want a partner with a sense of independence (89%)
• Want a partner with the same level of intelligence (86%)
• Think it's ok to casually date more than one person at a time (74%)
• Are not willing to support a partner financially (55%)
• Seek a partner who's comfortable with their sexuality (94%)
• Would not likely date someone who's less intellectual (61%)

PlentyOfFish has been in the game for years, but to keep up with upstarts like Tinder, continuous reinvention is a must. This year has seen plenty of change for POF, from being acquired by IAC/InterActive's Match Group to going public as part of the Match Group's IPO. Now the mobile app is getting a makeover.

A new update, launched December 15, 2015, has added several new features to the apps for iOS and Android. Bugs have also been fixed for a more stable user experience.

The first new feature will appeal to safety-minded singles. With free Voice Calling, you can place a secure, private call to someone without giving out your contact details. To call, open a message in your inbox. If the recipient is accepting Voice Calls, tap the phone icon to dial. Take note: calls are made through the app, so connect to wi-fi first if you're concerned about exceeding your monthly data limit.

If honesty is the best policy, is there an optimal time to divulge your most personal information?

Even at the best of times, “The Talk” can be a touchy subject. Maybe you want to date exclusively. Maybe you have wedding bells on the brain. Maybe you're just ready to disclose a weird hobby or an annoying habit.

Whatever talk you're ready to have, it's a sensitive situation and tricky to get the timing right. To shed some light on the murky topic, online dating site Zoosk polled more than 5,000 users to get their thoughts on having uncomfortable relationship conversations.

The big question on most daters' minds is this: when is it ok to define the relationship as exclusive or nonexclusive? According to Zoosk's survey, almost half of men believe it's important to define the relationship within the first few dates. Only a third of women agreed. Forty-nine percent of female users wanted to wait until after the first few months of dating to discuss exclusivity.

As far bigger commitments go, 56% of men and 54% of women consider six months an appropriate time to talk about marriage. Note: the marriage talk in question isn't about marrying each other or picking out color schemes. This conversation is just about whether you aspire to get married at all.

Zoosk also asked users about disclosures earlier in the dating process. Their research found that response rates to the first online dating message increase if the following words are used: vegan, pets, allergies. On the other hand, response rates decrease with the appearance of these words: vegetarian, virgin, rich.

In that initial communication, more men (32%) than women (28%) say they would disclose if there was something unusual about them sexually. However, the majority of men (52%) and a significant number of women (41%) say they would prefer to remain in the dark about their date's number of past sexual partners.

On or immediately following the first date, 70% of men say they would be upfront if they are seeing other people. Sixty-two percent of women say they would do the same. Past partners, on the other hand, are a subject better saved for later dates. Nearly half of men and women say they do want to discuss former relationships and recent breakups, but only after a few weeks of dating.

For more about this dating service please read our review of Zoosk.

Unless you've been living in a galaxy far, far away, you know this month is all about Star Wars. The seventh installment of the sci-fi franchise will soon premiere and fans are going crazy waiting for the big day.

To pass the time until The Force Awakens hits big screens, Match.com has done a little research on single Star Wars fans around America.

It turns out the Force is especially strong with the western US. The region with the most mentions of Star Wars-related terms in their profiles was Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue in Washington. Cities in Texas, Colorado and Utah followed close behind. In the top nine, only one eastern city makes an appearance: Orlando-Kissimmee in Florida. Maybe east coast fans prefer Star Trek?

If you're a Han looking for your Leia, your best bet is to look in Colorado Springs, Colorado – the top city for single female Star Wars fans. Your next closest bets are Santa Rosa-Petaluma, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah. Ladies looking for a Luke-alike are most likely to find him in Orlando-Kissimmee, followed by Austin-Round Rock, Texas, and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue.

Match.com's research didn't stop there. The company also found that Star Wars fans are more educated than the non-fan population. Sixty percent earned a degree beyond a bachelor's. They also showed an increased interest in martial arts, clocking in at twice as likely to be into karate than the average Match user.

Match continued its research into religion, politics and career choices. Star Wars fans were 2.2 times as likely to be atheist, agnostic, or spiritual but not religious, and 2.7 times as likely to be liberal or very liberal. As for their professional paths, they were 3 times as likely to work in technology, 2.5 times as likely to work in a creative field and 2 times as likely to work in government.

Speakiing of Star Trek, Match compared fans of the legendary TV series to Star Wars buffs. The results? Star Trek users were better educated and made more money. Star Trek users were also more likely to hold extreme political views (both right and left), and less likely to be moderate in their political leanings. On the other hand, Star Wars users were more likely to be into sports and less into gardening, politics and religion.

Time to start practicing your Star Wars pickup lines. Put your love life into hyper drive, and you could have a date for the opening night of The Force Awakens.

For more info on the online dating service which brought us this study you can read our Match.com.