I have different ideas about love for different situations.
Family love - unconditional. You don't get to choose your family or your children (well....I guess you can). The ties that bind a family together are strong, resilient and truly loving.
Friend love - I have a handful of tried, true and tested friends who I love. These are the people I can call in the middle of the night and cry to and they'll listen. These are the people who would drive thousands of miles to be by my side if I were ever hurt/injured. These are the people who would offer me their homes if I needed a place to stay and money if I fell on hard times. These are the people who call me "just to say hi", are willing to stand by me even when I'm acting out of sorts, care enough to intervene if they think something's wrong and know me well enough to be there during those times when I really just need a friend.
They're always there through the good, the bad, the happy and sad.
Plus they remember my birthday...lol.
And I'd do the same for them in a heartbeat.
Relationship love - I think the initial stages of a relationship, where you want to bang someone at every opportunity ALL DAY LONG is mostly a result of immediate infatuation. While it's a heady (heh) experience, love doesn't set in until you've been with a person for awhile and learn their habits, desires, what direction they like the toilet paper, if they're crabby or chipper in the mornings, whether or not they know how to close a cupboard door properly and other idiosyncracies that make up an individual.
Once you know who a person truly is, inside and out, and you're willing to stick by them no matter what....that's love.
.....
I'm conservative with the word "love". I say it to my family and a handful of friends, but that is it.
I've only ever told one man that I love him. That was my husband.
I guess when it comes to relationships, I reserve that word for "the one". If I'm telling every other guy in the neighborhood that I love him, how would the special someone in my life know he's....special? I guess for me, "I love you" is the ultimate phrase I can say to someone and if I say it to you, you'll know **** good and well that I mean it from the bottom of my cold, black heart.