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Good news, eHarmony users! eHarmony.com has just announced the launch of a new service designed to enhance the experience for those who want a higher level of service from their online dating site. The new service, called eH+, offers the best of eHarmony alongside a very special upgrade: a personal counselor.

The counselors are credentialed therapists working with eHarmony founder, himself a psychologist, Dr. Neil Warren. "Finding the love of your life is the single most underestimated challenge in the human experience," said Dr. Warren in a press release. "In the course of the dating process, we know that some people want or need a higher level of service in finding their marriage partner and since this decision impacts your life more than any other single decision, we want to provide help every step of the way."

So what exactly does it do?

"eH+ melds the power of eHarmony's online capabilities with the guidance and care of the matchmaking industry," said Grant Langston, Vice President of Customer Experience for eHarmony. "eH+ is exactly suited to take our proven compatibility algorithms and bring personal, one-on-one attention to the difficult process of finding the right person to share your life. We know that we have more marriages, with more satisfaction and fewer breakups than any other service and we are confident that eH+ will add another layer of strength to our already powerful process."

And that's not all. eH+ also promises:

• Matches chosen for you by your credentialed professional counselor
• Freedom from your computer - no updating profiles, managing matches, or juggling communication
• Matches who have been vetted for interest in you, so you no longer have to wonder whether your interest is reciprocated
• A deeper and more varied set of matches than what you likely would have encountered without an eH+ counselor
• Increased privacy, because your profile isn't automatically exposed to hundreds of people you've never met

If you think all that personalization comes without a price, think again. The bespoke eH+ service will cost $5,000 for a one year subscription. It certainly isn't cheap, but according to eHarmony 66% of its members were surveyed and indicated they would be interested in subscribing (though who knows what "would be interested" actually means?). Unfortunately the service is too new to hear reviews from users.

eH+ launched in beta on November 1, and its official launch is set for December 1. For more information on this dating site and its features you can read our full eHarmony Review.

Are online daters picky about physical appearances? OkCupid thinks so. The company recently launched a VIP service for members where by paying an extra fee, they can choose their preferences for a date's body type.

While OkCupid has garnered some criticism for this bold move, there is plenty of evidence that online daters do care a lot about physical appearances. Pictures play an important role in the filtering process for many daters. The majority view pictures first to see whether or not they want to reach out to a potential date.

"The truth about humanity that maybe people don't want to admit is that an important part of physical and sexual attraction is superficial," Sam Yagan, CEO of OkCupid and also of Match.com told TODAY.com. "If you ask someone, 'Why did you get married?' You'll hear, 'Oh, he makes me laugh' and all that stuff. And that's all true. I'm sure he does make you laugh. You also think he's hot."

The VIP service allows users to choose their preferred body type, whether it's "thin," "athletic," overweight," or even "used up," and are matched accordingly. According to Yagan, he's just saving people the time. "People have strong preferences on body type," he says.

There is a case to be made for those who support the VIP service. Most online dating sites encourage people to post photos for a reason - they want to see what their dates looks like before they send an email or even pick up the phone. There is not really a difference with OkCupid's members, except that they can pay for the priveledge of keeping certain people out of their match list.

Critics maintain that people look deeper than physical appearances when they are hoping to find a relationship and not just a date or hook-up. Sites like eHarmony argue that these types of filters prevent people from meeting who otherwise might be attracted to less superficial factors - such as each other's interests, political viewpoints, or even educational background.

Plus, the filter is subjective. One man might consider himself "athletic" when others see him as "average," skewing the results. A woman might not want to admit she's overweight and therefore lie to avoid being filtered out of searches. Many online daters have already been burned by dates not looking like their pictures. While OkCupid's filters are meant to help the situation, it may cause even more daters to lie about their appearance.

Although OkCupid hasn't released numbers on how many members have joined the VIP service, they admit there's been a lot of interest.

A new app that has taken the dating world by storm is Tinder, a modern version of the game "hot or not." With Tinder, users can view the photos of other users along with basic information, and make a decision as to whether or not they want to meet. Swipe left to say no, swipe right to say yes. If you both say yes, you can start chatting and potentially meet in real life.

It's a different kind of experience from traditional dating sites, which makes it appealing to many users. It is easier to set up and easier to meet people quickly, rather than with online dating sites that require answering a questionnaire, profile description, and emails back and forth. With Tinder, you can join and meet someone instantly.

But who is using it? Are men more interested in Tinder because of its hook-up potential? Not really. Forty-five percent of Tinder users are female, and they are actively participating. Most of the users also skew on the young side, which isn't surprising. It is less intimidating to use Tinder than to market yourself on an online dating site, which could seem like more of a commitment for someone who is twenty-one and not really looking for a committed relationship.

So Tinder might be easy to use, but how are people really using it? Is it basically a hook-up app? According to most reports, yes. After all, Tinder was marketed to those people who are looking to meet other singles close by quickly, which feeds into the hook-up culture. But according to company executives and a few media members who have tried it, people can unexpectedly find love, too.

Like other online dating sites, you don't always know who it is you're meeting, and people definitely flake and don't show up, whether you meet via Match.com or an app like Tinder. It seems bad behavior will exist no matter what the platform you use to meet people.

So what does this mean? Traditional online dating isn't going away anytime soon. There are many people interested in long-term relationships, who prefer reading profile descriptions, emailing and a phone call before meeting someone in person.

But if you're out on a Friday night with your friends and you're looking for some excitement? Tinder might be a good way to socialize. Think about it this way. You look at people in a bar and decide who you want to approach. The only difference with Tinder is that their faces are on a screen.

Anything with a cutesy smiley face in the logo has to be good, right? Or maybe that's just my inner 13-year-old girl talking. Either way, when I discovered MeetMe.com and its accompanying kitschy logo, my curiosity was piqued.

MeetMe calls itself a social discovery application that connects members through games and apps on the web and mobile phones. MeetMe was initially founded under the name myYearbook by two high school students, Dave and Catherine Cook, and their older brother Geoff, during Spring Break of 2005. Following humble beginnings at the suburban New Jersey high school they attended, myYearbook partnered with game developer Arkadium to bring Flash based games and a virtual currency, called Lunch Money, to the site.

After that, there was no stopping the site's momentum. An entire virtual economy developed from the Lunch Money currency, including the ability for members to donate to their favorite charity using the Causes application. The site added Meebo instant messaging to provide real-time chat and Chatter, a real-time stream that incorporates media sharing and gaming. Games available inside the stream include Ask Me, Rate Me, and 2 Truths and a Lie.

myYearbook made further efforts to improve its members' experiences by launching applications for the iPad, iPhone, iPod, and the Android operating system. It also rolled out a new site design in 2010 that was created by crowd sourcing ideas from the site's members. Finally, in June of 2012, the site was renamed MeetMe and its current incarnation was born. With its fresh focus on introducing new people instead of reconnecting old acquaintances, MeetMe has seen a great deal of success.

Where MeetMe really excels is making the meeting process fun. There are matches and search options just like typical dating sites, but MeetMe has many more entertaining things to offer. Users can ask each other questions and follow a continuously updating live feed that features the answers of other local members. There's also a blind date game for braver souls, and a game called "Owned!" in which you can buy and sell friends using Lunch Money (and earn half the profit when you sell someone or your photo is bought).

Of course, there is also no shortage of more traditional games for users to play. You name it, it's there. Arcade games, casino games, word games, strategy games, card games...everything you could ever want to play is available, from air hockey, to blackjack, to a Pac-Man knockoff, to crossword puzzles and solitaire.

Admittedly, I'm not sure how a card game that's meant to be played solo can help you meet other people, but hey - at least you have the option.

To find out more about this dating service you can read our new review of MeetMe.com.

Why is everyone suddenly upset about OkCupid's A-List membership? Anyone with the ability to read - which I assume is the vast majority of the OkCupid userbase - should have known long ago about the little quirk that's been getting everyone's goat this week.

Let me back up a little bit. OkCupid's best functionality, like pretty much every other dating site, is saved for its paying members. Members of OkCupid's A-List receive perks like the ability to browse profiles invisibly, proof that their messages have been opened, and special match search options. It's that last one that's got everybody up in arms all of a sudden.

James Cook of KernelMag.com recently wrote that, by paying the $4.95 monthly fee for A-List membership, you can "make all those fat, ugly people on the internet go away" and called OkCupid's premium search options "eyebrow-raising in an era of tolerance and political correctness."

Whew. Those are some seriously inflammatory, designed-to-cause-outrage-and-garner-clicks statements! But are they true?

Well, yeah, technically they are. A-List members can filter their search results based on body type, so yes - a user could filter out anyone who describes themselves as "overweight," "a little extra," "curvy," "full figured," or "used up." They can also filter their search results based on members' crowdsourced ratings so they are only shown profiles that receive 5/5 stars.

But I think it's shortsighted to focus only on that. Every other body type is also represented, so an A-List member could filter out anyone who describes themselves as "thin" or "skinny" just as easily (not everyone is into that, remember?). Or maybe you're not a fan of the bodybuilder, hyper-muscled physique. No problem - just filter out anyone who calls themselves "jacked."

The thing is, every single one of us is doing this in real life anyway, aren't we? Of course it's shallow - no one is denying that - but it's reality. We make snap judgments about potential dates based on what we are and aren't attracted to all the time. Would life be better if we didn't? Absolutely! But it's not happening any time soon, and I think it's unfair to fault people for having preferences as long as they aren't being narrow-minded jerks about it.

And if they are being narrow-minded jerks about it...well...there's another way to look at this A-List search "scandal." If you hate the idea of people being able to filter you out by your body type, think of it this way: they're simultaneously filtering themselves out of your life. They get what they want and you get fewer shallow jerks in your life...it's a win for everyone.

Every day online dating sites get just a little bit smarter. With every piece of info typed into a profile or search bar, dating platforms collect a new piece of data about how singles look for a partner and what they want in their relationships.

It gets more sophisticated all the time (facial recognition software, anyone?), which has to make you at least wonder if one day the Internet will be better at finding love for us than we are at finding it for ourselves. There's the plot to a Hollywood thriller in there somewhere...

But I digress. To discover how some of the biggest dating sites in the world are matching members, Mashable spoke with the talented men and women behind some of the most high-tech algorithms out there. If you've ever wondered how your personal data is used to find the love of your life, wonder no more.

MATCH

As the largest dating site in the world, Match.com has unprecedented access to dating data. Members fill out anywhere from 15 to 100 questions, as well as free-response essays, and are assigned points based on each parameter in the system. Those with similar point scores have a higher chance of being compatible.

Match also looks into what members say they want in a partner vs. who they actually pursue on the site. By carefully observing members' behavior, Match gets a more accurate picture of what they're really looking for. Match constantly updates and refines its algorithm to make it as effective as possible.

HowAboutWe

HowAboutWe takes a different approach to online dating by encouraging members to get offline and on actual dates.

"Our deepest insight is that it's difficult to predict chemistry online," said Aaron Schildkrout, HowAboutWe co-founder and co-CEO. "That's why our ultimate focus is on actual dates. Get offline - that's where the chemistry happens."

Like Match, HowAboutWe relies on analyzing user behavior to make recommendations. Self-reported data, like political affiliation, is much less important on the site.

COFFEE MEETS BAGEL

Coffee Meets Bagel is at the forefront of the social dating revolution. CMB matches users through a mix of behavior on the site and personal info culled from Facebook.

"People talk a lot about big data these days, but the biggest area of opportunity is incorporating social elements into that through user inputs such as friend recommendations," said Coffee Meets Bagel CEO Arum Kang.

"Ultimately," she added, "we believe, like Facebook does, that our members do a better job than algorithms at regulating human interactions."