Online Dating

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.

Tired of swiping endlessly? If you’re looking for forward movement in your dating life, then the New Year is a good time to check your habits when it comes to online dating, and see where you can change things up a bit. There’s nothing like ringing in the New Year with a new attitude towards love!

Let’s start with perceptions. Most people think that dating apps are easy tools for hooking up, but not much else. While they are convenient, many people using dating apps are also looking for long-term love, just like you. Don’t make assumptions about why others on using dating apps – it’s important to keep an open mind, otherwise dating is nothing more than an exercise in handling frustration.

Following are some tips for the New Year on how to get a better handle on those dating apps:

Join something new – but do your research first! Most people join Tinder because that’s the app they know, without realizing there are a slew of dating apps out there catering to every type of dater. If you know you want something serious, try eHarmony or even Coffee Meets Bagel (for a little less pressure) instead. If you are looking to find dates with similar religious leanings, try JSwipe for Jewish singles or Collide, which labels itself the “Christian Tinder.” If you are looking for Star Wars fans? Try AYI (Are You Interested?) – which matches up people with similar interests.

Update your photos. Let’s face it – dating is visually-driven, so you have to put your best face forward. Instead of posing in a slew of selfies, have a friend take some more interesting photos – you playing guitar, doing a yoga pose or out hiking, for instance. Then visually you can show potential dates who you are – it is more effective than listing your hobbies in a description.

Get to the date. Instead of the endless messaging back and forth, it’s much more efficient to ask your matches out right away. You can’t tell if there will be chemistry until you meet in person, so why drag things out and get invested in an online fantasy? If you’re a woman, do your share of the asking. It’s 2015 – and he will be fine with it.

Be mindful and courteous. Just because someone is on a dating site doesn’t mean they are DTF. Don’t send messages suggesting otherwise. Ask someone out to a public place, not your apartment to “Netflix and chill.” Treat others respectfully, and they will return the favor.

Say “yes” more often, ladies. Some guys accept all matches in the hopes of bettering their chances to meet someone. Women are the opposite: the accept very few, sometimes to their detriment. Remember, keep an open mind. Just because he isn’t exactly what you want on paper – you might have chemistry together IRL. Give everyone a fair shot.

Happy dating in the New Year!

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.

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.

There’s a new dating app on the market, and this one puts safety first in a big way. Blume has just launched an app that claims to solve the catfishing problem in online dating.

If you’ve been online dating, you’re probably familiar with the term catfishing. It happens when one online dater tries to deceive another online dater by lying about who he is, his intentions, even his photos and Facebook profile. Usually, people trying to “catfish” other online daters are trying to gain access to financial or personal information, taking advantage of someone else’s vulnerability.

Many dating apps have tried to address the problem by providing “verification” of some sort for everyone who joins a website, usually by having you sign up with your Facebook profile. But some have managed to get around the restrictions, taking advantage of other online daters by sending fake pictures and messages.

Blume has gone one step further by making verification part of the communication process. When you are ready to message someone you mutually “like” (similar to Tinder’s swipe), you cannot proceed without first taking a selfie in that moment. Only when both matches take and send the selfie so each can compare and make sure it’s the same person – are they allowed to communicate. (This might also prompt some late-night hair and make-up attention – instead of hanging out and swiping in your pajamas, one of the benefits to online dating.) You have seven seconds to compare the photos (like Snapchat) before they disappear. Once you take the selfies and they are accepted, then you can begin chatting.

While this is a compelling hook and many people do enjoy taking selfies, this might also be a detraction for using the app. Most of us want to appear camera-ready, and might not like the way we look in selfies, or want to spend time taking the right picture, in the right light, in the right outfit (of course). One benefit is that the photo disappears – but a potential hazard is that you might think your curated profile won’t look the same as your selfie – and that your date might not think you’re the same person.

Not to mention, if you like to sit at the bar or restaurant swiping Tinder while waiting for your friends, this would not bode well for Blume. A poorly lit bar with lots of people around might not be the ideal time to take a selfie for some people. Or even sitting in a café having a coffee.

But if you’re willing to give it a shot and take your chances with your selfies, go for it. It might be the latest online dating craze.

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.