Amongst the Catfish-induced hysteria that has become such a cultural phenomenon, some are attempting to shed light on the actual likelihood of being scammed online. What's Your Price may not sound like the most reliable or scientific of sources (ok, it definitely doesn't), but they are the latest to join the conversation on online dating honesty.

What's Your Price's recent study found that - surprise! - people do lie on the their profiles. But (and this may actually be a surprise to some of you), they rarely lie about anything major. Women tend to lie about their weight; men tend to lie about their height, income, and marital status.

When you break it down by city, the biggest online dating liars reside in Washington, D.C. - there's definitely a joke about lying politicians in the somewhere, but I'll leave it to you to fill in the blank. Following in the footsteps of D.C. are Atlanta and New York, while the opposite end of the spectrum is occupied by Houston, Phoenix, Boston, Charlotte, and Minneapolis.

Research has shown that around 81% of online daters misrepresent some part of their identity on their profiles. It sounds like a lot, but when you think about it, just as many people stretch the truth when you meet them in person. It's the curse of the dating game in general, not the curse of the online dating game specifically.

The majority of online dating lies are small, because anything larger would quickly be caught upon meeting in person for the first time, and relatively harmless. In fact, some researchers even think those little lies could be beneficial for your mental health and dating prospects.

A 2009 study found that some little white lies - like exaggerating your college GPA - can lead to genuinely improved performance. They become self-fulfilling prophecies. In other words: there's a scientific basis for 'fake it 'til you make it.'

"Exaggerators tend to be more confident and have higher goals for achievement," said Richard Gramzow, a psychologist at the University of Southampton in England and one of the study's co-authors. "Positive biases about the self can be beneficial."

Liars also tend to be happier than other people, and are viewed as friendlier and more amiable than their more truthful counterparts. A few fibs may also be key to standing out in the over-saturated online dating market.

So should you lie in your online dating profile?

Who knows?

But will you do it?

Most likely.

Take that, online dating critics!

While some are busy striking fear into the hearts of online daters everywhere, others are busting stereotypes wide open.

Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but a new study from the Crime Victims Institute at Sam Houston State University is still worth a look. The report compares the dating safety and victimization rates between traditional relationships and online relationships. Is meeting someone online really more dangerous than meeting someone offline?

The answer, according to Molly Smith, one of the doctoral student researchers involved in the study, is no. Regardless of how people meet, the rate of victimization appears to be very close. All daters should be cautious and keep their wits about them, no matter the scenario.

Maria Koeppel, another doctoral student researcher who worked on the project, worries that daters have let their guard down now that online dating is socially acceptable. Even though it is now mainstream, Koeppel warns, singles should always remember that it's important to think of safety measures when going on a date with someone they met online.

"As society is becoming more technology based," she says, "education about online dating, as well as continued information about traditional dating, needs to be stressed to high school kids and even preteens. She suggests that educators could even consider incorporating a segment on the subject into health classes, teaching students about the potential dangers of online dating.

Koeppel also offers advice for college students: "Just be smart when going into dating situations or trying to find someone to date. Don't put yourself out of your comfort zone. Many dating situations in college tend to be fueled by alcohol or drugs, so be smart."

And here's the real surprise: according to the Crime Victims Institute study, online daters actually tend to have slightly lower rates of victimization than traditional daters. Smith believes online dating can be less dangerous because people pay more attention when dating on the Internet. Online daters are naturally more cautious than those who date offline.

"People who seek out potential partners on the internet seem to exhibit higher levels of caution and utilize more protective measures," Smith explains. Many who use online dating sites also tend to talk to their potential partners "for a longer period of time prior to meeting them in person, thus making them more aware of potential 'red flags' that might arise in a face-to-face situation."

The more tech-savvy among you have no doubt heard the uproar surrounding Facebook's Graph Search. Even the less tech-savvy have probably heard it - the uproar was just that big.

Here's why: Graph Search offers personalized results like those from a search engine, but contextualized and drawn from specific data culled from your social circle. It's even capable of understanding natural speech, instead of relying on keyword searches. Couple that with the "Pay to Message Strangers" feature Facebook also announced, and you've got...a dating site?

That's certainly what the online dating industry feared. Before Graph Search had even launched, industry experts worried that Facebook would be the death of online dating.

Lucky for them, there may have been nothing to worry about. "I used graph search and it showed me people who meet my criteria," said OkCupid and Match CEO Sam Yagan, "but that didn't mean I wanted to date those people." Traditional dating sites use painstakingly crafted algorithms to pair up compatible couples, but Facebook lacks any strategy for determining compatibility. Graph Search can find you users who also love Tom Cruise movies, but it can't actually figure out if you're a good match.

Aaron Schildkrout, co-CEO of HowAboutWe, found the whole idea puzzling. After you find someone you're interested in, then what? Do you friend them? Do you pay a fee to send a stranger a message? It all feels awkward, and decidedly unlikely to lead to real connections.

Sean Suhl, cofounder of Let's Date, agrees with Schildkrout's assessment "I would feel awkward about contacting a stranger or friend of a friend on Facebook for romantic reasons because not everyone on Facebook is there to meet people." On a dating site, you can rest assured that - barring a few exceptions - everyone's there to meet future dates.

But that's not to say Facebook is a completely lost cause when it comes to online dating. It's already one of the most common ways people meet and hook up online. Dan Slater, author of Love in the Time of Algorithms, says "We all know that people have already been using Facebook for dating, and that Facebook is the biggest online dating site in the world, even though it doesn't think of itself as an online dating site."

So what is Facebook, exactly? Is it a place to meet new friends? Is it a tool to keep in touch with old friends? Is it the newest (and maybe the most powerful) dating site to join the fray? Maybe it's all three.

Returning visitors may have notice a change with DatingSitesReviews.com ... we have replaced our old website template with a new one. Improved variations of the old theme has been used for almost 10 years now by us and we thought it was time to change the look of the site and modernize a few things.

Besides the complete new look we have also added social networking tools to make it easier for our users to Facebook like, Plus One and tweet about the reviews, news and information offered.

We are still tweaking things here and there so, if you spot anything that looks out of whack please let us know.

Enjoy!

When you want to travel, you turn to TripAdvisor for reviews of hotels, flights, and vacation rentals. When you're looking for a new book to take poolside this summer, you read Amazon's reader reviews. When you want a romantic restaurant for a date or a good movie to see with your family, you ask the users of Yelp or Rotten Tomatoes for their advice.

It was only a matter of time before someone started asking: "Why should dating be any different?"

A new crop of apps and websites is popping up to close the gap between online dating and your favorite review sites. Why take your chances with date, when you could read the thoughts of other "users" first? Just think of all the trouble you could save!

Maybe you've stalked your ex's Facebook page from time to time looking for evidence of a new girlfriend or to see how much time he spends partying with his friends. Perhaps you've also gone through your Instagram pictures to try and relive those old memories of when you were together. Or maybe you've wanted all evidence of him to just disappear, but pictures and comments still keep cropping up unexpectedly when you're reading Facebook posts from your friends or updating your status.

Break-ups are hard, but getting over your ex emotionally and physically is now just one part of the equation. Thanks to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, we also have to think about how to erase those memories from our digital history.

There are a few things you can do to be more proactive in letting go of your ex's social media presence. It just takes some tools and a lot of courage. And of course a good app to help you actually do it. (There's an app for anything, right?)

An app called Killswitch allows you to identify your ex in your lineup of Facebook friends when you download it. Instead of you doing the emotional dirty work, the app sifts through your timeline history and relevant posts and deletes them. So, mission accomplished with no regrets. (And if you happen to get back together, the app also has a reversal mechanism which saves those files in one location.)

You can also unfriend him. This will keep him out of your Facebook interactions going forward, but you still might need to clear him out of your history. Just stay clear of your timeline and delete the pictures that you've posted - delete the items you have control over.

Refrain from mentioning him online. I know it's tempting to list all of the things he said or did that were hurtful, or share with your friends what a player he was, but don't. Your ex isn't up for a public discussion/ dissection over Facebook. For one thing, this won't help you move on - it will only convince you to spend way more time thinking about him than you should.

One last helpful approach is to take a leave from Facebook for a few weeks, until you feel more centered after a break-up. While it might be difficult to stop posting or reading about your friends, keeping your Facebook account at bay will also prevent you from stalking your ex's page. If you don't want to go cold turkey, then find another social media space that he doesn't use, like Pinterest. There are plenty of options out there if you want to get distracted.