Are you online dating, wondering how to juggle your holiday schedule? Or have you met someone great, but you're not sure whether or not to bring her to your office holiday party or family gathering?

The holiday season can be stressful, because there is so much going on and expectations can run a little higher than usual. Remember not to put pressure on yourself or any budding relationships - after all, if this were May instead of December, would you be pushing her to meet your family? Probably not.

Remember to relax, sit back, and enjoy yourself. Following are some tips to keep you on track.

No expensive gifts. If you just started dating, then you might want to hold off on purchasing that iPad mini for your love - no matter how smitten you might be. Don't look to impress because it's the holiday season. Besides, your date doesn't want you to give him an iPad when all he gave you was a scarf. And if you just started dating, you might want to consider having a conversation about not exchanging gifts at all.

Mix things up. This is a great time of year to avoid your typical dinner and drinks date. Instead, offer to take her sledding, ice skating under the stars, or strolling through the neighborhoods that go all-out with their Christmas decorations. There are plenty of great options if you just look.

Careful with family invitations. Maybe your parents are excited to meet the new guy you've been talking about, but is the holiday season the best time to introduce him? It might put unnecessary pressure and expectations on your relationship. Save the introductions until you've been dating a while, and bring him home to mom and dad when you're both ready.

Don't expect an invitation in return. If you decided to invite your new love to your family gatherings and office holiday parties, don't be upset if he doesn't return the favor. Relationships move at their own pace, and shouldn't be dictated by a holiday schedule. Don't put so much pressure on yourself or your date.

Take things slow. Are you dating more than one guy this season? Have they both asked you to holiday parties and family dinners? Maybe it's time to take a step back. Instead of trying to juggle your commitments, let your dates know that you're not ready for anything serious or to meet the family. Just spend time dating each man and get to know them better, as you would any other time of year. Don't feel pressured to make a commitment just because of the holidays. Take your time, relax, and enjoy.

Julie Spira has come a long way since she created her first online dating profile nearly 20 years ago. She is now a dating coach and leading online dating expert, as well as the best-selling author of two books: The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online and The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Digital Manners.

Each year, Spira and her team curate a list of the latest and greatest mobile dating apps on the market. With the current explosion of mobile dating, it couldn't come at a better time.

Who made it onto this year's Cyber-Dating Expert Top 10 Mobile Dating Apps list? Let's find out.

HowAboutWe is about to take over the world - literally.

The dating service has announced the launch of the first internationalized versions of its iOS application. Though the web-based version of HowAboutWe already had international users, the app was only available in English, significantly limiting its reach. Now it's available in 15 new languages that cover more than 30 countries, including France, Russia, and Japan.

And it gets even better. The company says it's also making all features in the mobile application available for free to international users. (Sorry, America, you still have to pay. Premium features for United States-based users, like unlimited membership, will continue to cost between $8 and $35 per month.) In addition to full access to all of the exclusive features offered to American HowAboutWe members, global users will also enjoy:

• Browsing date ideas suggested by local singles
• Finding people who want to meet in person
• Checking out profiles and full-screen photos
• Posting their favorite nearby places as date ideas - instantly
• Seeing who's online now, nearby

When asked why the company was choosing to offer services entirely for free, HowAboutWe's head of PR, Jade Clark, explained that their primary concern is to extend their reach as a brand and become an established figure in a new market before weighing monetization options.

HowAboutWe isn't just planning to bring its emphasis on real-world activities to the international stage. Half a million members are signed up for HowAboutWe for Couples. When asked about mobile and international plans for the couple's product, Clark adds that the company is working to expand their mobile offerings and plans to make some major announcements in the early parts of 2014.

To celebrate the launch of the app around the world, co-founder and co-CEO Aaron Schildkrout posted a guide to his blog called "10 Things You Need To Know Before Internationalizing Your App." I'll spare you the details, because many of them are quite technical, but Schildkrout did speak of the challenges that come from language barriers and different cultural expectations. His final piece of advice is something we can all understand, regardless of your location: "It will always take 3x longer than you think!"

I'm intrigued by this new development. Just think of all the opportunities for cross-cultural connections that might now be possible. Imagine being an American tourist in a foreign land, connecting with locals (and possible tour guides) using the same dating app you're already familiar with. It could add a whole new dimension to travel.

For more on this service you can read our HowAboutWe review

If you’ve survived your teen years, chances are you or someone you know has taken a compatibility quiz in a magazine. In junior high they were something almost mystical and sacred, especially if they included astrology. “I’m not sure I should have a crush on him - he’s a Libra, so apparently it could never work in the long run.”

Even if you were no longer in the teeny-bopper demographic, the compatibility quizzes didn’t stop there; even magazines aimed at adults promised to cut their way to the core of your relationships, real or potential, with five easy questions. And even though everyone knows these sort of quizzes are mostly arbitrary, it was tempting to find meaning in them, define yourself by them, view conversations through the lens provided by them.

Those quizzes haven’t gone away today; in fact, they’re a main feature for many online dating sites. But the question is, are those quizzes any more useful than they were for preteens? If a computer algorithm matches you with someone, is it really much better than charting your astrological signs?

Yes... and no. Matching systems can certainly find people in whom you might well be interested - people who fit the general categories that would catch your eye: age, profession, even interests. What they can’t do is tell you if you’d actually be good for one another - hence the familiar story of being “matched” with an ex. Sure, you might have been interested at some point, so the system isn’t wrong - you’re just ahead of the system.

Quizzes are another issue. Depending on the site and type of quiz, they might not have been answered with much consideration or seriousness. On the one hand, you can choose to take them with a grain of salt. On the other, sometimes an answer can reveal something about the character of the test-taker. In short, there’s probably no cause to be broken-hearted if you and your partner don’t match up perfectly. On the other hand, if a potential match has red flags all over their quiz results, it might not be a bad idea to treat them with caution.

However, there’s something else to consider: those same red flags would probably surface in conversation. After all, if someone is vile enough to be apparent via an innocent quiz, there’s no hiding it for long. Also, in person you’re dealing with real-time reactions and responses, not carefully thought-out quiz answers. So a quiz might indeed be helpful, but meeting in person is still the best way to determine your compatibility.

So the next time you encounter a compatibility quiz, give it all the weight you want - but remember it’s just to help you decide if you want to meet this person, not whether you’re in love with them. The true assessment happens on the first date.

I spent a few days in Chicago and was reminded that in many parts of the country, fall is brief and winter comes around when you least suspect it. One day you are enjoying a nice afternoon in the park, the next the wind is nipping at you and you find yourself searching frantically for your heavy coat.

So how do you plan for a great date with all of this crazy and unpredictable weather?

While dating in good weather is an ideal situation because you can take advantage of the outdoors, cold weather offers a lot of opportunities that you might not even think about. Before you make plans for drinks, dinner, or a movie, consider some of these date alternatives:

Visit an art gallery. Maybe you can't enjoy a nice hike or the beach, but there's plenty of culture to be found in every city. Check out a neighborhood you haven't visited much to see about local galleries, or if your city has an artwalk, then check it out with a date.

Take a cooking class together. Nothing is more romantic than cooking for each other. In this case, learning how to make a new dish together in the comfort of a warm kitchen.

Painting parties. Getting together with other singles for a glass of wine and a blank canvas might seem intimidating, but it's a great and different way to break the ice with your date (so to speak). Don't worry, you don't have to be Monet, you just have to be able to hold a paintbrush. Painting parties are happening across the country - check your local listings for dates and times.

Improv/comedy theatres. Instead of a movie, try supporting your local theatre instead. Many cities offer a stand-up night at certain clubs, or have a theatre dedicated to improv comedy troupes for very reasonable prices.

Check out local festivals and events. Cold weather offers some interesting opportunities, like beer tasting and bratwurst, or nighttime hayrides, or perhaps a harvest festival with food, warm cocktails, and music. Check local listings for events near you.

Pick a museum. Has it been a while since you visited the Natural History or contemporary arts museum? Chances are, they aren't high on your must-see list when the weather is nice. But winter months are perfect for museum tours, and offer you an active date (strolling through exhibitions) rather than a passive date like ordering drinks at the bar.

Enjoy the season!

Are you addicted to Tinder? There's a new social dating app called Charm that takes the Tinder approach to a new level - this time with videos instead of pictures.

Charm was created as a stand-alone app by the makers of MeetMe, formerly MyYearbook. MeetMe has marketed itself primarily as a social app where people could meet for friendship as well as dating. Charm is its next offering, giving those who prefer dating-specific apps a new way of sifting through potential dates with one swipe of a thumb.

Co-founder Geoff Cook has been impressed with the way Tinder has taken off. But he's not convinced that using pictures to determine whether or not to date someone is a good idea, because pictures can be so misleading. So instead, Charm offers the same easy yes/no swipe feature as Tinder, but instead of using pictures as a way to decide who to date, members view short, looping videos. MeetMe has marketed the product by positioning against Tinder, including creating a slogan that reads: "Because you are so much more than a profile pic!"

The videos on Charm are easy to create - just hold your thumb to the screen and record, similar to Vine, another social dating app. And like Vine, the video plays on a loop.

Each video clip is between six to ten seconds in length, allowing users to show off a skill, deliver a smooth pick-up line or perform a short sketch. If you're unsure of how best to present yourself, Charm advises that: "people who are happy and friendly get the best response."

While Cook maintains this is a better way to meet people than with a pictures-only app, there is something intimidating about making a video. It puts you more on display - there's not much to hide (or Photoshop), and video can display your personality and quirks, giving people a much more intimate view of who you are without ever meeting you. Plus, you have to come up with a creative way of promoting yourself without being shy - which could end up being misleading in its own way, as one of the videos showed a guy twerking while in a handstand position. Does he really do that in his everyday life? This might not click with some daters, who prefer the ease and relative anonymity of Tinder.

For now, the company is keeping Charm as a standalone app, rather than making it a feature of MeetMe. However, Cook says that down the line, some of the functionality of this app could make its way to MeetMe or other standalone apps. The company plans to release three more apps over the next six months.