Did you know that computerized dating actually began in the '60s? Inspired by a world's fair exhibit in 1964 that matched pen-pals, Project Tact was developed in 1965 to match daters. People paid five bucks, answered over 100 questions and were matched with five people. Within one year, Tact had over 5,000 subscribers in the limited area of Manhattan's Upper East Side. Doesn't sound that different from what digital dating giants Match.com and eHarmony do today, does it?

Shon Mogharabi, Cultural Strategist of New York agency RAPP, took an audience through his findings in online dating and best educated guesses for the industry's future based upon its past. Basically, it all begin — if not ultimately with Project Taft — with AOL, what Mogharabi called "the Wild West of online dating... there were no rules, there were no stigmas."

Social networks that provided information on a person, like Facebook, had yet to exist, so those seeking companionship had to outright ask for it with the poignant inquiry "A/S/L?" And let's be honest, that 24-year-old male in Florida was most definitely a hormone riddled 13-year-old boy sitting before his family's computer in New Jersey while his parents slept.

In 1995, Match.com entered the scene to normalize a need; eHarmony and OKCupid followed with their launches over the course of a decade. And now, with the rise of the social networking era, we're presented with a multitude of niche options targeted towards the most specific of tastes (see: Yes! Mrs. Robinson, 420Lovers). So what happens now, as billions of people divulge their most personal details online yet still have a hard time trusting an online dating outlet?

Well, it's all becoming a bit more immersive. Take Nerve Dating and Howaboutwe as examples. Nerve fronts itself as a daily publication that refreshes each day and rebuilds daters' profiles as they share more information about themselves, like check-ins to bars and updated interests. People evolve, so why shouldn't their profiles summoning potential mates? Moreover, disagreeing over something ("Thriller" vs. "Purple Rain") can often be more fun than perfectly aligned likes and dislikes.

Howaboutwe centers the connection of two people around an activity rather than a roster of complimentary stats. CEO Brian Schechter says, "[The site] shifts the emphasis off of 'Do you like me?' — which can be really awkward — and onto 'Do you want to go and do this?'" The hope is that people might meet companions they wouldn't otherwise give a chance when limited to online interaction only.

Sites are undoubtedly improving their initiation points, with far less combersome surveys and more dynamic conversation. One could guess that the overarching goal of the online dating industry is to make online love as natural to come by as in the offline world. Futurist and filmmaker Jason Silva pontificates, "The online space isn't the first space where we dress up how people perceive us." He suggests that haircuts, clothing, voice intonation are all done in the name of a better image.

"The online space is just a different manifestation of the very same thing we're always doing." So what happens now that even the up-and-coming mobile dating industry is estimated to be valued at $1.3 billion dollars in 2013? Our guess is that manner of using social networks and dating networks will start to align and there will be less secrecy about it.

If that type of user interaction will actually improve the quality of matches made is yet to be seen. Mogharabi found little deviation from the "A/S/L" AOL days and said that if we know anything, we know that a lot of people lie whilst cruising for a date online. He suggests that 10-second video clips of dating site members might eliminate a lot of the guess work for users. A lot more (or worst case scenario, a lot less) personality comes across verbally than through a keyboard.

But here, perhaps, is the best idea yet: Wouldn't it be interesting if dating sites used a person's actual web history rather than carefully crafted profile answers to find their possible matches? That might save for a lot of shock down the road when you "stumble upon" your significant other's history tab. Just sayin'.