The most compelling experiment looked at search time for travel websites.

FORBES: The Psychology Behind The Best Business Strategies

Michelle placed second in the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search competition for an experiment measuring alertness and anxiety among teenagers separated from their cell phones.

FORBES: Moneyball, Immigration, and the Search for Hidden Advantage

"We experiment with every kind of technology that is related to search, " Mr Kuo said.

BBC: 'China's Google' Baidu is making smart glasses

While JDate doesn't publicly release its algorithms, at the time of my experiment I observed that the more popular profiles come up higher in search results, allowing one to get a quick-and-dirty ranking of who's hot (or not).

WSJ: Hacking the Hyperlinked Heart

Microsoft, for example, is taking a cautious approach to its latest social media experiment, So.cl, which actually is part social network, part search engine.

FORBES: Dear Google, It's Not You, It's Us

The overwhelming response to Dubost's experiment did make him question if he shouldn't take his career in a different direction instead of just search for a new job.

CNN: Fake Amazon resume proves the power of personal branding