Types (Niche)

Is your date a stud or a dud? A new mobile app called Stud or Dud hopes to boost safety and transparency in the online dating world.

A 2011 study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that approximately 81 percent of dating site users lie about their height, weight, or age in their profiles. On average, the female participants described themselves as 8.5 pounds thinner in their profiles than they really were. Men only subtracted 2 pounds, but they lied by a greater magnitude than women about their height.

Snapchats new logo.

The company behind Snapchat, which recently changed its name to Snap Inc., is now facing a trademark lawsuit over its new moniker. Snap Interactive, a company that operates dating applications for social media websites, filed the suit at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, October 25.

Snapchat’s rebranding was intended to reflect the company’s expanding goals. "We rebranded our company to Snap Inc. because we are bigger than just one app," chief strategy officer Imran Khan told Adweek. "Snap Inc. is a camera company—we believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate."

Tinder is on a roll. After announcing a partnership with Spotify and introducing the ‘Boost’ feature to promote profiles, the dating app is launching yet another update. The newest feature is called Smart Photos, and it hopes to help users put their best face (literally) forward.

The Smart Photos algorithm automatically determines which pictures are a user’s best. It works by cycling the photos on your profile so different ones appear as your primary image. As it does so, it logs the response to each image and calculates which scores you the most likes or right swipes.

Once the algorithm has fully assessed your photo selection, it determines which image is the strongest to lead with and automatically reorders your pictures to show the best ones first. In testing, users saw up to a 12% increase in matches.

You imagine that life is good for a Google executive. He has a killer job. He owns a big house or a stylish penthouse apartment. He drives a Tesla. He has more cash than he knows what to do with. He regularly takes vacations and buys from big-name brands.

That guy can’t possibly have trouble finding a date, right?

Business Insider tells a different story. The website recently sat down with Charlee Brotherton, founder and CEO of Executive Matchmakers, and Megan Buquen, the company’s Vice President, for a peek behind the curtain.

Everyone loves to skip the line. There’s a special satisfaction that comes from strolling past the unfortunates stuck in the queue, throwing a confident nod to the bouncer, and sashaying through the door without even flashing an ID.

Whether or not you have that kind of clout at clubs, you now have it online. Tinder is rolling out a new feature called ‘Boost’ that lets users skip the digital line for a fee.

“You’ve got people to meet and places to be. In fact, Tinder was designed with this in mind, providing you a simple, fun introduction to new people nearby so you can get out and meet them in the real world,” reads the official blog announcement. “Still, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day and what you need is a boost in the right direction.”

A year ago, Vanity Fair ran an article dramatically called Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse’. It caused a major stir in the media - everyone was debating whether the swipe made love easier to find or wiped romance from the equation completely.

The article wasn’t just a catalyst for discussion amongst daters and writers. Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of the dating app Hinge, was also struck by what it had to say.

“It was the first among many realizations that Hinge had morphed into something other than what I originally set out to build (an app for real relationships),” McLeod said in an email to the Vanity Fair writer, Nancy Jo Sales. “Your honest depiction of the dating app landscape has contributed to a massive change we’re making at Hinge later this fall.”