According to a recent study aiming to find the most desirable single in 2014, you'll have the most luck if you're 25 years old and rich.

The study pooled information from about 81,000 singles between the ages of 25-35 on the dating website Plenty of Fish, along with about 1.8 million messages to see what traits were the most desirable in both men and women who are online dating.

For both sexes, men and women in their twenties received more messages than those in their thirties. Women who were between 25 and 26 years old received the most messages, with a sharp decline once they turned 33.

It seems that both men and women prefer singles who make money. Women who earned between $50,000-$75,000 and men who earned between $75,000-$150,000 attracted more prospective dates than those earning less. And men who have law degrees are also likely to be the most successful in garnering attention online, with 33% more messages than the average single guy.

While data like this paints a certain picture of online dating, it's good to keep in mind that this is information gathered from only one online dating site and from just one demographic. If we were to look at online dating as a whole, the fastest-growing segment is singles over 50. And many people prefer paid dating sites like Match.com or eHarmony because daters tend to be more serious if they buy a subscription.

Free dating sites have always skewed younger, because many young daters aren't interested in serious relationships and want a chance to meet a lot of people. Paid dating sites tend to attract users of all ages who are on different levels of the dating spectrum - from casual to marriage-minded.

Twenty-somethings are also gravitating towards dating apps rather than online dating sites. Apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Are You Interested have been on the rise, mostly because of the ease of creating a profile and meeting people immediately, whereas most online dating sites require a little more effort and time before you're meeting each other face-to-face.

So while the POF study might feed into the stereotypes that persist about online dating (that singles prefer if you're young, earn a lot of money, etc.) - there are in reality a wide variety of singles who are online dating. Don't be afraid to explore a number of dating sites and see which one works best for you. This is the best time of year to do it, since more people than ever are online dating!

Do you know when you're on a date and when you're just hanging out? If you're confused about the difference - you're not alone. It's getting harder and harder to tell for a lot of singles.

According to a new study by Christian Mingle and JDate, there is a lot of ambiguity. Their online survey of 2,647 singles of varying ages (18-59) shows that 69% of respondents are confused about whether an outing with someone they're interested in is a date or not.

Maybe the confusion comes in with the definition of a date. According to the data, only 22% agree that "if they ask me out, it's a date," whereas 24% think it's a "planned evening with a group of friends."

So why all the ambiguity? According to the study, technology might have something to do with it. Fifty-seven percent of 18- to 24-year-olds say texting has made it more difficult to determine whether an outing is an actual date. But among older daters, that isn't necessarily true. Only 36% of 35-44 year-olds think that texting has made it more difficult.

The ambiguity isn't gender-specific either - both men and women generally agree. Mostly, opinions vary by age. The younger the dater, the less likely he or she is certain whether or not it's a date.

"In today's modern world there are so many factors contributing to blurred lines and mixed messages when it comes to dating and relationships," says Rachel Sussman, Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker who analyzed the results of the study. "I see clients every day who are struggling with how to navigate muddled waters in a new or long-term relationship, and this study by ChristianMingle and JDate confirms these issues exist across the country."

Expectations for men to pay on a date seem to be declining, too. Only 69 percent of men say the man should foot the bill for a date (vs. last year's study of 78 percent). This might be part of the dating ambiguity issue, too, because if the outing isn't clearly defined, there's no need to offer to pay as a gesture of affection or chivalry.

While singles might not agree on what constitutes a date, they do overwhelmingly agree (by 85%) that online dating is a socially acceptable way to meet people. Also, two out of three know couples who have met through online dating sites. Ninety-four percent believe that online dating expands their dating pool.

While the definition of a date might be more and more ambiguous, it seems that online dating is gaining more and more acceptance as time goes on. We'll see what the results say next year.

In an expansion to reinvent itself as a lifestyle media network, HowAboutWe announced the acquisition of long time dating site Nerve.com.

HowAboutWe caters to both singles and those in relationships with separate subscription-based memberships, one for meeting singles and dating and one that is more of a date-planning service for couples.

The addition of Nerve.com means HowAboutWe is acquiring Nerve Dating and a database of singles who had already been using the service. Members will be automatically rolled in to the HowAboutWe for singles service, and offered a free sixth-month membership to try it out.

Nerve.com's main attraction was not its dating site, but the edgy content of its online magazine, with articles that discuss all things sexual and offbeat. HowAboutWe will be doing a redesign and relaunch of Nerve.com, though they haven't announced what that would include or how much (if at all) the content focus will change. The strength and appeal of Nerve is the brand itself, which has been around since 1997 and was one of the first web-only magazines.

HowAboutWe is focused on becoming a media powerhouse as well as an online dating service. Its roster of online magazines also includes Swimmingly.com for couples and Famously.com for celebrity news and gossip, both of which were launched the last week of January. Also under the HowAboutWe media banner is TheDateReport, which centers around dating and the single life and will also get a fresh redesign by HowAboutWe.

Brian Moylan, a former Gawker writer who has been editing TheDateReport, is now editor-in-chief of the new HowAboutWe Media, which includes all four sites.

The founders of HowAboutWe are purposeful in their media pursuits: they recognize the competition in the online dating industry, where IAC owns the majority of branded dating sites such as Match.com, OkCupid, and a number of niche sites like BlackPeopleMeet and OurTime. But these dating sites are specifically geared towards singles looking for dates. They want HowAboutWe to be a destination for people not only to meet each other, but for singles and couples to get news, advice, and also ideas about what to do together and how to nurture their relationships.

With the new sites and new content, HowAboutWe is also hoping to cash in on new advertising revenue, instead of just relying on subscriptions.

"Every lifestyle publication is speaking, in one way or another, to people and their love lives," HowAboutWe co-founder and co-CEO Brian Schechter told Observer.com. "We think that there's actually a huge opportunity to address that consumer demand as opposed to just circling around it."

It's a question I hadn't given much thought to (and I'm guessing I'm not the only one) until Slate posted it: Why don't single sitcom characters date online? Everyone and their mother (quite literally) is doing it in real life, so why haven't televisions shows jumped on the bandwagon?

Earlier this month, The Mindy Project used mobile dating as a marketing device. Tinder users swiping through profiles could come across two fictional characters from the show, which would then direct to videos promoting the sitcom if they made a match. It's was a clever marketing gimmick, and relatively unobtrusive for a generation of people who have grown accustomed to seeing ads everywhere. But it begs the question: why is Mindy on Tinder, but Tinder isn't on The Mindy Project?

"In two seasons of casual dating," writes Amanda Hess for Slate, "Mindy's been set up on a blind date; she's met suitors on the subway, in her office building, in the hospital, and on the street; and she once even unwittingly employed the services of a male escort. But she's yet to locate a date through her phone." New Girl, How I Met Your Mother, and Parks and Recreation have all featured online dating, but only as a one-off, single episode gimmick.

What gives? In real life, we'd be looking for love online or on our phones at least once an episode, not once in an entire series. Could it somehow be that we're doing away with the online dating stigma everywhere but on television? Are sitcoms just totally out of touch with modern dating?

Slate says there's another way of looking at it: "Sitcoms and dating sites are both built to organize our messy romantic lives by corralling our desires into neat narratives. Sitcoms offer an unrealistic version of modern singledom, but so do online dating services." Sitcom characters have a team of writers controlling the narrative structure of their dating lives, while those of us who live nonfictional lives require technology companies to provide a script for us.

Expect to see more online dating on your screen soon, however. Bravo plans to launch a show called "Online Dating Rituals of the American Male" in spring. The series will follow a cast of men in their search for love (or whatever else they're looking for) online. The hope is that it will provide an insider's perspective on the male psyche and dating in the digital age.

Being on Bravo, it's bound to be a sensationalized, over the top, drama fest of a show, but maybe it's still a step in the right direction.

Are you ready for a new reality TV show about dating? MTV is betting you are.

The new show doesn't center around one bachelor or bachelorette. Instead, the goal of this show is for the 20 singles participating to find true love with the other contestants, which makes the playing field a little more equal. The twenty contestants are stranded together at a resort, which makes for a lot of drama and temptations.

Here comes the catch - each of the contestants has been matched in advance with another contestant on the show - thanks to a staff of dating experts. But the contestants don't know who their matches are. If they all figure out their matches by the show's end, the whole group splits one million dollars. Now, that's incentive to find love. Or is it?

It's an interesting premise, because it allows us to see on the screen how these participants think of connection and love, and what qualities they might consider for someone to be a good match. Do they look for physical chemistry, or what interests they have in common with someone else, or do they look for contestants who share similar backgrounds or careers? Often, what we think makes someone a good match for us doesn't necessarily translate to a real-life connection. Maybe we fall in love with someone who is very different from what we pictured. So maybe these participants will have to let go of some of their assumptions.

At the end of each episode, all the contestants are required to couple up, and they are told how many couples are correctly matched, but not which ones. From the beginning, you can see that some singles are motivated to follow their hearts, while others are looking at strategy and who seems the likeliest fit, whether or not they feel anything for the person. I guess a million dollars can make you rethink your own intuition and judgment.

Jon Caramanica states in his review posted on The New York Times website: "It's striking how casually and easily the participants try one another on for size, and how quickly they're willing to mistrust their own instincts in favor of what the show - via the "truth booth" -tells them about their compatibility. Shanley and Chris T. bond within minutes, but when it's revealed they're not a match a day or two later, Shanley moves on with barely a thought, leaving Chris T. slightly stunned."

I'm interested to watch the show because of this human element - what we value, and how much we trust our guts as opposed to what others tell us might be good for us. Would you be willing to be paired with someone who didn't make you weak in the knees if it meant that you got financial reward? That's reality TV, I guess.

Much has been said about online dating's transition from stigmatized service used only in the shadows to full-blown pop culture trend. The term "meteoric" has never been more appropriate. Online dating's rise to total world domination has been unprecedented...and we might have mobile to thank for that.

With the equally meteoric rise of mobile dating, online dating has become a social activity - one that people are happy to discuss in public in a way they've never been before. Tinder turned public perception of online dating on its head, especially for the young people who primarily make up its userbase.

It's not unusual to see friends using the app together, sharing images and messages amongst the group, or sending each other screenshots of especially notable Tinder chats. It's what people talk about on the bus, what they use to pass the time while waiting in long lines, and what they turn to when they're feeling awkward at a party. The online service is rapidly becoming integrated into our offline lives, and no one is embarrassed about it.

Though all online daters have benefited from the attitude adjustment that came along with Tinder, one group may be discovering some very important bonus benefits: women. Traditional thinkers say that women only want relationships - they're not interested in casual dating and would never judge someone on appearances alone. Yet 45% of Tinder users are women, and they seem perfectly comfortable with the app's low-commitment approach to relationships and reliance on physical appearance.

Tinder's non-profile profile offers up very little information (all culled from Facebook) about users, meaning it disproves a second common stereotype: that, unlike superficial men, women require detailed information about men before deciding if they're interested. The stripped down profile also prevents users from feeling exposed in an uncomfortable way they might on an online dating site. If you haven't spent hours on a meticulously crafted profile that digs into the heart of the "real you," rejection hardly feels like rejection.

There's also the message problem. Female users on online dating sites are famously bombarded with messages from admirers, an overwhelming experience that turns many off from online dating as a whole. But Tinder users can only receive messages from people they've indicated an interest in, and the app doesn't allow users to send photos (meaning unsolicited scandalous pics are kept at bay). It's a perfect solution.

And then there's the final plus of Tinder: it's fun. It manages to be silly, exciting, intriguing, and socially acceptable at the same time. Online dating has yet to crack that code.