Definition of online dating. Online dating or Internet dating is a dating system which permits individuals, couples and/or groups to get in contact and communicate with each other over the Internet, usually aiming to develop a rather personal romantic, social or sexual virtual relationship, promising to a real relationship. None of this would have been possible without the internet. On October 29th, 1969 the first connection was established in between three American Universities: University of California, Los Angeles and the Stanford Research Institute.