In 1995, Match.com forever changed the way we meet and connect.

Electic Classifieds launched Match on April 21, 1995. By October 1996, membership reached 100,000 singles. A year later, 150 couples who met on Match had walked down the aisle together.

That was just the beginning. Things exploded at the turn of the century, when Match partnered with AOL and MSN to bring online dating to the general public. Match launched internationally in 2002 and introduced its mobile service in 2003. By 2010, Match had become responsible for more dates, relationships, and marriages than any other dating site.

Now, in 2015, Match is celebrating two decades as the world's largest dating service. The site is responsible for over 10 million relationships in the US alone, and has created more than a quarter of a billion matches overall.

In honor of Match.com's 20^th birthday, let's take a look back on some of the ways online dating and romance have changed over the years.

1. The stigma is mostly gone. When Pew Research Center studied online dating habits in 2005, most Americans were skeptical. By 2013, more than half agreed with the statement “Online dating is a good way to meet people.” Some still consider online dating a desperate tactic, but they are in a minority that shrinks more and more with each passing year.
2. 1 in 5 adults ages 25-34 have tried online dating. Online dating is most popular amongst singles in their mid-20s through mid-40s, but 45-54 year olds are just as likely to date online as 18-24 year olds. Some suggest that online dating is particularly useful for older singles, who tend to have a more limited number of available partners in their immediate social cirlces.
3. More singles are open to meeting someone from an online dating site. When Pew Research Center conducted a survey in 2005, they found that 43% of online daters met someone in person after initially being introduced on a dating site. In 2013, that number increased to 66%. But that still means 1/3 of online daters have never met up with someone in real life.
4. Online dating is a joint effort. Many singles enlist friends to help them put their best foot forward. Around 22% say they've asked someone to help create or review their profile. Women are especially likely to ask friends for assistance – 30% have sought profile help, compared to 16% of men.
5. 5% of coupled up Americans say they met their significant other online. As accepted as online dating now is, the majority of Americans are still meeting offline. But given the steady popularity of online dating sites and the rapid explosion of mobile dating apps, that number is bound to change.

Here's to another 20 years of modernizing romance, Match! For more information please read our Match.com review.

Across the board, so-called “hookup apps” have a certain reputation. It's right there in the name. While plenty of singles use dating apps like Tinder to find actual relationships, popular perception skews in a much more sensationalized direction.

No group falls victim to that melodramatic media coverage more than the gay community, who constantly catch flack for the use of Grindr and similar apps. The common refrain is that these applications encourage risky sexual behavior and exist only for easy, no-strings-attached gratification, but a new study may have people rethinking that narrow-minded assumption.

Garrett Prestage, associate professor of sociology at the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute, says 80% of gay men now find their boyfriends through apps and dating websites.

According to his research, published in AIDS and Behaviour and backed by the National Health and Medical Research Council and LaTrobe University, showed that only 14% of gay men met their partners online in 2001. Fourteen years later, things are drastically different.

Today, the numbers of gay men who meet long-term partners at bars, at sex-on-premises venues, and through friends have dropped dramatically, and the changing landscape of gay dating is forcing safer-sex campaigners to rethink their strategies and assumptions.

It's long been said that men who using dating sites or mobile apps are at a higher risk than men who do not, but Prestage casts doubt upon any studies that seem to confirm that theory. “This data show that this is faulty logic because most gay men meet partners this way… be that romantic or sexual,” he says. “If they’re comparing it with men who don’t use apps they’re comparing men who are sexually active with those who are not.”

Prestage adds that “the myth that an online hook up is only just about sex” could mean that health organisations using apps and websites for HIV prevention outreach could be falling short of their goals.

“A more sensible approach is simply to accept that men are more likely to meet via online methods these days and make sure that there are appropriate online interventions and information,” he argues.

A more effective tactic would be to target specific users based on what they're looking for, providing different messaging for men looking for relationships and men looking for casual sex. Ultimately, while apps can certainly help increase awareness around sexual health campaigns, they aren't a sufficient strategy for serious engagement.

Health organizations must adapt to the changing landscape of gay dating if they want to remain relevant and engaging.

Apple Watch sales have been through the roof since the product launched, and it is creating a media frenzy (as many of Apple’s product debuts do).

Not many dating apps can be downloaded for the Apple Watch, but Coffee Meets Bagel is one of the first. The company recently announced its launch on Apple’s wearable technology.

Coffee Meets Bagel is a dating app that works through your social media connections, finding matches in your Facebook network and introducing them to you one at a time. At noon every day, CMB presents users with one personalized match or “bagel” – then each user has 24 hours to decide to like or pass. If there’s a mutual like, they can chat over a safe and private line. However, messaging is not indefinite – users will have only a week to set up a date before the private chat line closes.

With Apple Watch, CMB works a little differently. This might signal a new wave of dating technology, since swiping left and right isn’t really an option with an Apple Watch. (Sorry, Tinder.) Instead, apps rely on more hands-free technology, such as voice-to-text functionality.

According to Dawoon Kang, co-founder of the dating app, the Apple Watch app will complement the existing mobile app by "enabling members to do everything more quickly and easily," not to mention hands-free. Apple Watch’s Glance feature allows members to check their daily matches at noon. The watch will display the match’s basic profile and photos – (likely not much information will be available on the small screen, however).

Instead of manually liking or passing, members can “like” or “pass” matches hands-free using the Apple Watch’s voice technology. If two users match, then they are connected and able to chat using voice-to-text technology.

This is good news for those looking for a Tinder alternative. But is wearable technology going to be a new platform for dating apps? Considering CMB works through voice technology (i.e., talking to your Apple Watch) – it might be a little intimidating to use when you’re out at a bar. Do you really want people around you to know that you’re liking or passing on a date, or to overhear your text conversation? Tinder is much more subtle, and no voices needed.

Still, that isn't stopping people from buying the new watch. No word yet on whether CMB's dating app will also be available for wearable Android products.

Ask those who have tried online dating and most will agree: it does expand your social circles. Through the swipe of a screen or click of a button, you have plenty of new people to meet that you wouldn’t encounter if you only relied on friends and family members to set you up on dates. But sometimes despite all these opportunities, online dating is an overwhelming, confusing and even disappointing experience.

A recent article in Mic.com looked deeper into this phenomenon, asking psychologists what they make of online dating, and citing studies that maintain it’s not necessarily productive in terms of finding a long-term relationship.

There have been studies about how too many choices can overwhelm us to the point of paralysis. In a 2010 study by Psychological Science, researchers found that when we have too many choices in dating we often don’t make good decisions. They likened it to shopping: when consumers are faced with too many brands of product, whether it’s laundry detergents or chocolate, our brains become overwhelmed, which leads us to make poorer choices. In other words, we buy the detergent based on the pretty packaging, not the quality of ingredients or how effectively it cleans clothes.

The study focused on 84 different speed dating events of different sized groups. Those who met 24 or more potential dates in one night tended to feel overwhelmed, and they made decisions about who to date based solely on physical characteristics like height and weight. However at the smaller events, people felt less overwhelm, and made decisions about who to date based on non-physical characteristics, such as sense of humor, education, and career.

As one of the researchers said, “There are constraints on what our brains can do – they’re quite powerful, but they can’t pay attention to everything at once.”

And online dating has only gotten more confusing and overwhelming since dating apps like Tinder have taken over the market. People swipe left and right with little inner guidance about their choices – almost as if they are dating on auto-pilot.

The good news is, we have more choice when it comes to meeting people – we can go outside of our own circles. But we also have to understand that while there seems to be an endless supply of potential dates – and therefore it seems there’s always someone “better” to meet – we are also limiting our love lives. Taking a shopping mentality to dating prevents us from living in the present, and from enjoying the company of someone we’re getting to know. Not everyone is going to be a romantic match, but usually it takes more than one or two dates to get to know someone.

Take your time. There’s no rush. It’s time to enjoy online dating – one person at a time.

Online dating launched and you thought “This couldn't get any more convenient.”

Then mobile dating apps happened, and you thought “Nevermind, this is the pinnacle of dating convenience.”

Soon, if Zoosk has a say, even dating on your smartphone might seem passé. The dating service is rolling out a smartwatch app that integrates with Android Wear technology to take convenience to the next level.

The app, available for download on the Google Play store, brings Zoosk’s Behavioral Matchmaking™ algorithm to the sleek smartwatch interface, offering wearers on-the-go access to potential matches throughout the day. For now the app is free to use for browsing potential matches, but a subscription fee is charged for access to premium features like messaging.

Let’s face it – dating today is elusive. People are meeting new potential dates all the time with the popularity of dating apps like Tinder and Grindr. It’s no wonder that commitment is hard to come by – even for just one date.

Have you ever experienced the “fade” in dating – some call it ghosting – where the person you’ve been seeing suddenly disappears with no reason or explanation? You might have thought things were going great. Maybe you were looking forward to the concert you were going to invite him to, or perhaps you were fantasizing about a future relationship. After all, he was really into you, or so you thought – why not get excited?

But then, inexplicably, your texts and calls went unanswered. Maybe you only went out a few times, but you were starting to get emotionally invested. It’s only natural to want an explanation – to understand why this person you thought was so interested didn’t choose you.

But think about it – you’ve probably been on the other side of this relationship, too. Maybe you started dating someone and it was fun for a while, but you decided as time went on that you really weren’t into that person. Or maybe you decided you didn’t want a relationship that quickly – that you’d rather keep dating. Or maybe you weren’t over your ex and your date had become a nice distraction. Unfortunately, you weren’t as into him as he was into you.

Did you pull the fade on him?

If you’ve only been out a few times, or you never really established what your relationship is, then it’s difficult to know what to do when that person disappears. After all, you weren’t “together” – at least not in any committed sense. So what’s the problem, and why are you so upset over a relationship that wasn’t “real”?

The problem with this thinking is that it’s misguided. Even if you haven’t had “the talk” with someone you have dated, if you have developed feelings, then it can be just as devastating as a real break-up. This is why it’s important to not pull the fade.

Instead, honor and respect the person you’ve been dating by letting her know you aren’t interested in a relationship. It might hurt to be blunt, but it will help the other person move on more quickly and easily. After all, wouldn’t you want to know?

It’s important to be clear in this age of elusiveness in dating. It will create more open and honest relationships in your life. Don’t pretend to be friends or continue to hook up with someone you aren’t interested in. Make a clean break. Allow him to move on, too.