Recipient
Plenty of Fish

The 2015 Editor's Top Pick - Over All Award recipient is POF.com. This is the hardest category for us to determine and it was a real close call this year but in the end we at Dating Sites Reviews felt Plenty of Fish deserved the Editor's Top Award.

2015 was a big year for the largest free dating site Plenty of Fish. The biggest POF news (and not the reason for the award) is IAC purchased the company for $575 million. Why did the owners of Match.com spend so much? It has to do with the amount of users POF has, and how well they interact with each other. Since 2003, POF has had more than 100 million singles from around the world register for the dating service. Everyday more than 3.5 million singles log into the service to search for and communicate with other members. In total this generates about 9 million conversations a day and results in every 120 seconds a member confirming to POF that they have started a relationship.

For the last 12 years POF has remained popular due to the fact that it not only has free communication but because the service is easy to use. It does have a paid upgrade option for additional perks but the service's core features (profile, searching, and sending messages) have remained free. POF also continues to pour resources back into the service and is constantly tweaking their matching algorithm to produce better results. This is also noticeable in the POF dating apps as well, by the new features you see with every update and by how easy they are to use.

Read our review of Plenty of Fish for more information about this online dating service or visit Plenty of Fish directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: Match.com

The New Year is here – and the majority of us seem motivated to make positive changes in our lives. In addition to healthy diets and exercise regimens, many people have also vowed to make changes to find love this year – whether it’s making more time to date, committing to finding a relationship, or even making an attitude adjustment.

So what has been holding you back from pursuing a long-term relationship? Do you find yourself getting frustrated from the online dating process? Do you feel that relationships don’t ever work out for you? Or are you just not meeting the right person?

With dating, we have to get clear about what we want before we can expect a relationship. And that means looking at our online dating profiles and making some changes. After all, it’s your marketing tool – your first introduction to potential dates and your chance to make a good first impression. So why not spend some time on it, so you can attract the kind of person you’d like to meet?

Following are some simple profile changes to make to get 2016 started on the right foot:

Change your photos. This is an easy and effective way to spruce things up in 2016. Look for photos that show your whole body as well as a headshot. Include shots of you doing yoga, surfing, hiking, playing guitar, or whatever else you like to do. People look through photos before reading profiles, so try to tell a story through yours.

Reconsider your handle. People do make snap judgments about handles. If you have a sexually suggestive one, get another – it’s a big turn-off for women. Or if it’s too generic, like John1987, opt instead for one that includes a hobby or favorite song, for instance. Get creative.

Pick a topic and get specific. Instead of including a laundry list of likes and dislikes in your description, try naming a specific thing and telling a story. For instance, if you like to travel, instead of just listing where you’ve been, think of a favorite trip and describe what it was like, or tell a funny story of something that happened to you. The goal is to get potential dates to message you, ask a question, start a conversation.

No generic phrases. Liking to “Netflix and chill” is not a good way to attract a potential relationship – nor is the fact that you are “looking for a partner in crime” or that you “love to laugh.” Doesn’t everyone love to laugh? What tells a story about you is what makes you laugh. Do you like comedy shows, or telling bad jokes, or is there a favorite Instagram feed that makes you giggle? Show that you have interests, where you like to go on the weekends, or the fact that waking up to Rihanna's music helps get you through the work day. Potential dates know that anyone can sit on the couch and watch TV, but they really want to know who you are and what sets you apart. Think of it this way: write phrases that can start conversations.

We’ve all heard (or seen via Instagram) the news about Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton dating. They met as co-workers on the set of reality TV show The Voice, and now, since they both split from their respective spouses, they have become a very public item.

But what does it mean to work alongside the person you’re romantically involved with – do many people do it, or is it just something most people think about?

If you have been wondering (or considering your own workplace affair), Match.com has crunched the numbers for you to reveal a few facts on the subject. They surveyed thousands of singles in their latest “Singles in America” study, and revealed information on workplace dating.

Following are some interesting stats that Match found in regard to workplace dating:

• According to Match, one-third of singles have dated someone they work with, and more than half say a happy relationship is more important than their career.
• Of the 35% of people Match surveyed who have dated someone they work with (37% of males, 34% of females), 55% of them don’t even try to hide the romance – much like Gwen and Blake, who have been documenting it themselves via Instagram.
• An almost equal number of men and women (57% of males, 56% of females) say that a happy relationship is more important to them than their careers.
• The majority of people surveyed agree that flirting with a co-worker is totally fine (75% of men and 66% of women) - but do it after work. Forty-three percent of people surveyed said they prefer to flirt with colleagues after work rather than during the day at the office (39%). And a whopping majority of 92% said they would never flirt with their boss.
• Don’t put it in writing – only 14% of people said they have flirted with a colleague via email.
• Men are more likely to act on their feelings, regardless of the potential consequences. Forty-three percent of men vs. only 35% of women are inclined to flirt in the office. Fifity-seven percent of men vs. 29% of women fantasize about having sex with one of their co-workers, and 46% of men vs. 15% of women would consider having a one-night stand with someone they work closely with.
• Of the people surveyed who admitted to dating someone at work, 65% of them have had a one-night stand, 56% have had a friends with benefits relationship and 80% think about sex at least once a week.

Admit it: you're no stranger to taking selfies. In 2015, it's inevitable that you've at least tried it (even if you deleted it immediately afterwards in embarrassment).

But what if your selfie could do something useful? That's the premise behind dating app Blume, which hopes to solve one of the biggest problems in the dating industry: the uncertainty about who’s actually behind the profiles you're into.

Con artists lurk in the darkest corners of online dating. And even if you manage to avoid the seriously scammy profiles, there's a good chance you'll have a run in with someone who just doesn't match their photos. It's practically a rite of passage for online daters.

On Blume, photographic self-portraits save the day. Users connect via profiles, but match via freshly taken selfies. Deceptive profiles are more easily weeded out, and catfish may be more discouraged from joining in the first place. Add it all up, and you have an app that creates a safe and trusted environment in which users can feel certain about each other's true identites.

Blume users begin with a main screen that shows people nearby. If two people 'Like' each other, they connect. When a connection is made, both parties must send a selfie to each other. The photo lasts seven seconds after it's opened before disappearing forever and, in another shoutout to Snapchat, text can be placed over the picture as an icebreaker.

If you're not in selfie mode when a match is made (because let's face it, you're probably searching while you're languishing in bed with a head-pounding hangover), you can reuse a single selfie up to five times.

If you take a screenshot on Blume, you will automatically be banned for 2 hours for a first offense. Further screenshots result in a 7-day ban, a 30-day ban and, after 4 illicit screenshots, a permanent ban from the app. Blume is serious about keeping conversations, selfies and other user content private.

When a mutual match is made, any text laid over the top of the selfies is automatically transferred into a chat session and full profiles are revealed. Once in the chat, you can swipe left to send further selfies.

If uncertainty about who is behind a profile is the top problem for online daters, the second could be difficulty establishing real emotional connections when you meet through a screen. Blume also hopes selfies will help with the latter by making online dating a more intimate experience.

"We really wanted to solve these problems and make online dating a lot more personal, fun and safe at the same time,” co-founder and CEO Daniel Delouya told Bustle.

Recipient
Plenty of Fish

The recipient of the Editor's Top Pick - Innovative Award for 2015 is Plenty of Fish (POF). This online dating service has kept itself on the top by being an innovator. In 2015 POF reached more than 100 million users and has on average 3.5 active users everyday.

In the past year POF.com received a number of updates. One of the most important is the website went responsive. This means it can now be viewed on a smartphone's browser without all the pinching and zooming. Depending on the screen size of the device viewing pof.com, the website will automatically rearrange the layout along with adding and removing interface items to give the user the best possible viewing experience.

The POF service itself saw a number of new features added. One of the more popular ones was the ability to add photo's to your profile from Instagram. The POF App (iOS and Android) had the most work done on them since they had the most new features. Upgraded members (ie paid users) now have access to VoIP Calling. This means you can contact other members using the dating app for voice calling but still keep your phone number hidden for the extra bit of safety. The POF app also now can send you push notifications on your phone. This means if you are using another app while you get a new message from a potential POF match, you will be notified right away via a popup window with the message along with the ability to reply to the message.

Read our review of Plenty of Fish for more information about this online dating service or visit Plenty of Fish directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: Tinder

Lisa Hoehn is an expert in the art of online dating. Her website, ProfilePolish.com, specializes in giving undateable profiles a much-needed makevoer so you are still you – just a better-sounding, better-looking version. The kind that actually gets dates.

In her new book, You Probably Shouldn't Write That: Tips and Tricks for Creating an Online Dating Profile That Doesn't Suck, Hoehn shares her best advice for creating a sought-after digital dating presence. Not only does she reveal the mistakes you probably don't even know you're making, she also offers step-by-step guidance to correct them.

Read on for 5 of her best online dating tips.

1. Pick your username carefully. Most of the time, potential suitors will ignore it. But if it's really awesome – or really terrible – they'll notice. Hoehn's biggest username no-no's include: sexual references, too many numbers, obvious bragging and your last name (because you don't need to be Googled by someone you've never even met).
2. Ban bad photos. It's more important to have good pictures than to be good-looking. Your photos should paint you in a flattering light while offering insight into your personality and lifestyle. Images that are blurry, small, dark, grainy, edited, outdated and – worst of all – don't even include you – need to be nixed.
3. Use the English language (or whichever one you speak) properly. Sloppy grammer and spelling mistakes are instant attraction killers. Hoehn also advises against including too many exclamation points, overusing emoticons, typing in all caps and adding hashtags.
4. Watch your words. Certain subjects just don't belong in your dating profile. Don't insult a group of people. Don't mention your ex. Don't be blatantly sexual (unless you're using a service specifically for that). Don't talk about money or your medical history. Don't say you're looking for a “new beginning,” a “fresh start,” or something “drama-free” – because what you're really saying is “I come with a lot of baggage.”
5. Don't go overboard. If you're one of the rare specimens who actually enjoys filling out a profile, resist the urge to pen a novel. Don't wax poetic about your favorite subjects (no one cares). Don't use too many lists. Don't make sweeping, corny romantic statements (it's cheesy and you're definitely jumping the gun). Don't share so many details about your life that there's nothing left to talk about on a date.

For more top tips from Lisa Hoehn, pick up a copy of You Probably Shouldn't Write That: Tips and Tricks for Creating an Online Dating Profile That Doesn't Suck at Amazon.com.