The secret to finding love online? Data, apparently

Science has been deployed by the matchmaking industry in all sorts of ways (Debbie Powell)

Over on Mashable there's an essential read for those struggling to find love online, as Amy Webb shares her secret for going from largely overlooked on JDate, a Jewish match-making site, to being one of the site's most popular profiles. The key? A mixture of espionage and mathematics.

Webb - a digital strategy expert - used her understanding of algorithims to crack JDate's system and "SEO" her profile, eventually leading to a hook-up with her future husband.

She also did a spot of catfishing; posing as a man and analysing the profiles of the most popular women for patterns. The crucial lesson was simple. Don't overshare. 97 words was the average "resume length" of top site users' - and they tended to wait 22 to 23 hours before responding to messages.

A more obvious tip, says Webb, show a little skin...