Online dating industry giant Match is looking to distinguish itself from the more popular dating apps like Bumble or Tinder. In an effort do this and to attract new customers, Match unveiled “Missed Connections,” a location-based feature that allows users to see other members they have crossed paths with in real life.

For example, if you walked in your neighborhood park this morning or grabbed coffee at your favorite coffee shop, you can see who on Match did the same and reach out to them.

The new feature offers a more organic approach to dating. Match hopes it will help people connect more easily in real life instead of relying on messaging, which has become an issue with many dating app users. In Match’s upcoming “Singles in America” survey (which will debut in early February), 55% of singles say they feel that technology has made it more difficult to connect with others in real life.

See Date Spots and Mixtape

Coffee Meets Bagel has launched two new tools to help its busy singles find love.

Since 2012, Coffee Meets Bagel has strived to stand out from the swipe-saturated mobile dating crowd. The app makes dating efficient and accessible by presenting members with one curated match each day at noon, eliminating the need to sink hours into searching.

The stripped-back strategy won over users around the world, and Coffee Meets Bagel has steadily expanded its reach and offerings over the years. The company secured $7.8 million in a Series A financing round back in 2015 and has introduced an array of new features, including Photo Lab and Send A Woo, in the time since.

The latest additions to the CMB family come courtesy of collaborations with Yelp and Spotify. The pair of web apps, called DateSpots.co and Mixtape, are designed to ease the awkwardness of getting to know someone new.

Here is the summary of the 10th annual Dating Sites Reviews Choice Awards. These awards honour the best dating apps an websites of 2016 in 11 different categories. These will be the dating services worth checking out in 2017 if you are thinking of trying online dating using a app or website.

Our top award is the Single's Choice Award and is decided by poll that all of our visitors can vote in. This poll ran from mid October 2016 until January 1st 2017. The poll asks 2 questions. The first questions asks you to recommend your choice for the top dating service from a selection of the ten leading dating services on the internet. The top three dating services who receives the most votes will be the recipient of a Gold, Silver, and Bronze award. The second question is similar, but it asks you to recommend your selection from eight of the most popular free dating services. With the free category there is only a gold award.

Single's Choice Award

Recipient Match.com

Our Gold Single's Choice Award for 2016 goes to Match.com. This popular online dating service continues to capture our top award year after year thanks to a large membership which makes meeting new people easy.

For full award information see the article: 2016 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award

Recipient eHarmony

Our Silver Single's Choice Award of 2016 goes to eHarmony. This online dating powerhouse is no stranger to our awards and usually earns several every year. This year eHarmony went through a number of changes allowing members to find matches on it's service even easier.

For full award information see the article: 2016 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award

Recipient Elite Singles

The 2016 Bronze Single's Choice Award recipient is Elite Singles. Everyone has seen their TV commercials and have come online to see what all the excitement is about. This is the first year that this dating service has participated in our awards and it is already one of our visitors favorites, and a winner!

For full award information see the article: 2016 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award

Recipient Plenty of Fish

The 2016 Single's Choice Award for a Free Site recipient is POF. Plenty of Fish continues to be as popular as ever and is our visitors first choice this year which is no surprise.

For full award information see the article: 2016 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award - Free

How to use BumbleVID

Do you think a few photos provide enough information to determine whether or not someone is a good match? The makers of dating app Bumble think they aren't, and that video can help.

The popular female-centric dating app will soon release BumbleVID, which will allow users to create a video "story" with unlimited 10-second videos, which will each delete after 24 hours. According to Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe, the video feature was inspired by Snapchat.

To make sure the videos are current, Bumble asks users to record their 10-second features within the app, which then posts to their profiles. If someone wants to use a pre-recorded video from their phone or another source, it has to have been recorded within the last 24 hours. These videos will also be marked with a tag saying they weren’t posted “live.” The new BumbleVID feature also lets users send their videos to specific matches.

Tinder sociologist Jessica Carbino

Tinder is making some bold moves lately, with the introduction of Tinder’s Apple TV app and a new profile feature that allows users to choose from over 30 gender identities. While Tinder has a reputation for being a hook-up app, the company is focusing its efforts now on helping users connect and find relationships. Its latest move: hiring an in-house sociologist.

It’s no secret that Tinder has revolutionized the online dating industry in engaging new users who were once weary of online dating. In fact, 70% of online daters only use mobile apps thanks to Tinder’s popularity, quite an increase from just a few years ago when most preferred looking for love from the comfort and privacy of their home computers.

Which is why Tinder wants to remain a trendsetter for the industry. In another bold move, the company recently hired an in-house sociologist to help point users in the right direction for making connections. In recent interviews for Grazia magazine and Fast Company, Tinder sociologist Jessica Carbino shares some tips on what makes a good profile, according to her research.

Christian Mingle and JDate are having a sale on subscriptions to celebrate Valentines Day. The sale starts February 9th and runs to February 14th, 2017. During this time you will be able to receive 20% off a 3 month and 30% off a 6 month subscription. No coupon is required for this sale which appears automatically on the upgrade page.

• Visit JDate now and receive up to 30% off a subscription
• Visit Christian Mingle now and receive up to 30% off a subscription

Both Christian Mingle and JDate have been matching singles since the late 90s and are Spark Networks flagship online dating services. You can access the faith based services via their websites and dating apps which are available for Android and iOS phones.

For more information about these popular dating services please read our Christian Mingle review and our JDate review.