General News

The number of Americans using Internet dating services has tripled over the last five years, says a detailed new survey by the Pew Internet Project. Based on interviews with 2,252 American adults, the survey also found a few ways in which dating in the Internet age differs for men and women.

Undesirable contact and outright harassment are considerably bigger issues for women who date online. 42% of female survey respondents say they've been subjected to unwanted approaches, compared to only 17% of men who say the same. The same goes for social networking sites, where 33% of women and only 19% of men say they've blocked someone who was making them feel uncomfortable.

Though those differences aren't insignificant, both sexes also have plenty in common. Men and women have similar success rates when dating online. 22% of online daters, regardless of gender, say they found a long-term relationship or a marriage using Internet dating services. Both men and women are also equally likely (54%) to complain about being misled by someone whose profile was deceptive.

And what the sexes really agree on is what they're actually using the Internet for: snooping. When Pew conducted its last major study on the role of the Internet in Americans' love lives, using search engines and social networking sites to keep tabs on exes and investigate future romantic prospects was not nearly the phenomenon it is now. That was back in 2005, before Facebook had officially become available to the general public and before smartphone usage had exploded.

Now, with those and many more technological innovations, it has become infinitely easier to get our snoop on. Just 11% of daters admitted to conducting online searches for information about dates in 2005. Now nearly a quarter of Internet users (24%) say they are guilty of researching dates and the number goes up (38%) if they're actively involved in the dating scene. 29% say they have searched online for information about someone they are currently dating or are considering dating, a number that was only 13% in 2005.

6 out of 10 Americans are now users of social networking services, which we have also turned into tools for stalking former flames. 1 in 3 say they've visited an ex-partner's profile to see what they've been up to. 30% of social network users who are active daters report using such services to collect intel on potential partners as well. For Internet users aged 18 to 29, that number jumps to 41%.

Like it or not, most of us have snooped at one point or another and it begs the question: which would we be more willing to give up, our ability to find new partners on the Internet, or our ability to find out about partners on the Internet?

Things we were into in 2013: Nelson Mandela, the iPhone 5s, bingewatching, twerking, Bitcoin, Bat-Kid, Breaking Bad, the royal baby, Grumpy Cat, and screaming goats.

Earlier this month Google released its annual Zeitgeist List, a collection of the top Google searches for the last 365 days that reveal what defined the year in pop culture, politics, technology, and more. "Every day, around the world, we search," Amit Singhal, senior vice president and Google Fellow, wrote in a Dec. 17 blog post. "We want to find out more about our heroes, explore far-away destinations or settle a dinner-table dispute between friends."

Because of that compulsive urge to search anything and everything online, Google is given unprecedented access to what captures the public imagination. The year-end Zeitgeist list uses Google Trends and other internal data tools to tap into the top trending searches of 2013 from 72 countries, and create a snapshot of the biggest people, places, moments, companies, and gadgets of the year.

Online dating plays an increasingly large role in the way we meet and choose our partners, so naturally Google included the year's most popular online dating services on the list. According to Google Zeitgeist, 2013's top ten dating services are:

1. Match.com
2. Chemistry.com
3. PlentyOfFish.com
4. Zoosk.com
5. eHarmony.com
6. FriendFinder.com
7. Tinder
8. Hinge
9. OurTime.com
10. OkCupid

Many of last year's entries are back again, though none retained the same positions. Match moved up a spot from #2 to #1, while PlentyOfFish dropped from the first place to third. OkCupid took a major hit in 2013, falling to #10 from #3 in 2012. Zoosk climbed a couple of spots to the forth position, and eHarmony fell slightly to fifth.

DateHookup, ChristianMingle, AdultFriendFinder, JDate, and SinglesNet all ranked last year but failed to make it on the 2013 Zeitgeist list. Instead, FriendFinder, OurTime, Chemistry, Tinder, and Hinge came from behind to take their place.

The most interesting additions to the list are, without a doubt, those last two. Tinder uses Facebook profiles to match members who respond with a simple left or right swipe to say "Yes" or "No." Hinge appears similar at first glance, but uses a "romance graph" to pair you with friends of friends that best suit your style - in other words, Tinder might get you a great hookup, but Hinge will find you a great relationship. Mobile dating took off in a big way this year, and shows no sign of stopping, so expect to see even more mobile services on the 2014 Zeitgeist report.

Zoosk's domination of the online dating scene isn't ending any time soon. The online dating site, which first rose to popularity by making romantic links between Facebook users, is preparing to create an important connection of its own - with investors in public markets.

Zoosk was founded in 2007 by Iranian entrepreneurs Alex Mehr and Shayan Zadeh, who met as students at Tehran's Sharif University of Technology. They moved to the U.S. in 2000 and launched the company seven years later. Zoosk acquired users quickly by tying itself to Facebook and the hundreds of millions of users who already used the ubiquitous social networking site to post personal information and photos. It's since branched out to mobile, the most rapidly-growing sector of the dating market, and has raised more than $60 million from investors including ATA Ventures, Canaan Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Crosslink Capital.

Zoosk is now taking steps to go public in 2014. The San Francisco-based company has picked Bank of America to lead its initial public offering, along with Citigroup and Royal Bank of Canada. Oppenheimer & Co. and William Blair & Co. will serve as co-managers.

In the $2.1 billion dating services business, Zoosk has a 2.9 percent market share, trailing behind Match.com and eHarmony in the competitive industry. Zoosk currently has more than 40 million active members, a success rate that can be attributed in part to the additional features the site offers. The challenge faced by most online dating sites is that, if their service is successful, their users have no reason to continue using it. Forward-thinking companies like Zoosk are counteracting that problem by offering other social features - like sending relevant discounts to couples or making date suggestions - to keep users coming back.

The approach is working. Close to 4,000 businesses compete in the dating services market, according to IBISWorld, yet despite that heavy competition, Zoosk said in May that its first-quarter revenue topped $40 million and that visitors to the website more than doubled from the prior year.

There's no question about Zoosk's impressive track record, but there are some questions about the success of these kinds of sites' attempts to go public. Following Facebook's troubled IPO in May 2012, there was a lull in social-networking deals. But Twitter Inc.'s debut last month seems to have put some people's fears to rest, and Twitter is now up 89% from its IPO price. Whose footsteps Zoosk follows in remains to be seen.

Newsflash #1: the new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project says that online dating is now completely commonplace.

Newsflash #2: that is totally not a newsflash. There's pretty much no one left on the planet who doesn't know that online dating is a perfectly acceptable way to meet your partner these days.

This latest study to look into the world of online romance says that 11% of American adults have tried online dating sites, 38% of whom identify as "single and looking for a partner." And if they themselves aren't searching for love online, they almost certainly know someone who is: 42% of American adults who use the Internet say they are personally connected to someone who uses a dating site.

The last time Pew asked Americans about their dating habits was 2005, and as you can imagine, things are more than a little different now. Since then, the rate of people who find long-term relationships using online dating sites has soared dramatically, from 15% of Americans in 2005 to 29% of Americans in 2013. The biggest booms have been seen amongst college graduates, individuals in higher income brackets, and singles over age 65.

For the most part, attitudes towards online dating are positive. 59% of those Pew surveyed say they believe online dating is a good way to meet people, which explains why 46% of them are using dating sites to find a long-term relationship or marriage.

Still, it's not all good news for online dating. Many believe that having easy access to so many potential partners actually reduces the chance of finding a long-term relationship, and a fifth of respondents say they feel that online dating is "desperate" despite all the progress it's made. That number, however, has dropped from where it was in 2005 and will likely continue dropping.

Online daters are also concerned about other users lying about themselves online. The majority say they have encountered someone who they felt "seriously misrepresented" himself or herself on a dating site, while 28% report being contacted by someone through a dating service or app in a way that made them feel uncomfortable.

On the whole, though, online dating is marching confidently and triumphantly into the future. And that future, for those who are curious, is probably in mobile apps. For now only 3% of American adults say they're using their smartphones to find love, but with mobile usage increasing in leaps and bounds all the time, it's bound to conquer the dating world soon.

On December 18, 2003 the first post for Dating Sites Reviews (DSR) went live. In those 10 years we have published more than 3,500 online dating and relationship articles that covered everything from the latest dating industry news to what makes a perfect dating profile. We also maintain more than 100 reviews now of dating sites and related services.

A lot has changed in the dating industry over the last decade. We have gone from about 20 main dating sites that shared the top spot down to about 5. We have seen a lot of dating services come and go. Some of these services just lost traffic slowly and disappeared, while others were bought out by a competitor.

Unfortunately the online dating profile writing service Geek’s Dream Girl will be closing on December 31, 2013. The site will remain live so all the content will be available and the current contracts with existing clients will be honoured. No new clients will be taken on.

The owner of Geek’s Dream Girl, e (just the one letter) has decided to move on. She is willing to transfer ownership to someone else if they are willing to continue to serve the geek community. More information can be found here.

I am sorry to see Geek’s Dream Girl go. Al the best in your new endeavors e!