NEW YORK: It seems the idea of ‘stalking’ their crush on Facebook had appealed to millions but the company has shut down the application.
The social networking giant pulled the plug on the application that allowed users to select “friends” whose relationship status they wished to closely monitor — or stalk, depending on your definition.
The app, which amassed over three million users, worked by sending users an email whenever a “friend” altered their relationship status. However, the application was shut down.
“Hey everyone, Facebook e-mailed saying that they’ve disabled us… We are working for a fix, but ask atfacebook to put is back online!” the New York Daily News quoted the app’s official Twitter account as saying.
App creator Dan Loewenherz revealed that Facebook had sent him an email explaining the reasoning behind the shutdown. “To ensure positive user experiences on Platform, we run routine automated screens that take user feedback, machine learning and various algorithms into account and remove spammy applications,” a representative from Facebook wrote to Loewenherz in an email he released to TechCrunch.
“For example, if an application is making an inordinate number of stream, publish calls and receiving a large number of user reports, it may be removed by our automated systems to protect the user experience and the Platform ecosystem.”
“I just really hope people use it for good, not evil,” Loewenherz, a Yale graduate, said. “It’s really a practical thing. If you’re going to refresh someone’s page 20 times a day, why not have an alert on it?”
Only this Monday, the Facebook Breakup notifier hit the Internet much to the sadistic glee of spurned lovers everywhere. More than three million people signed up for the application, but the affair was short-lived. Facebook broke up with the Breakup notifier.
Only this Monday, the Facebook Breakup notifier hit the Internet much to the sadistic glee of spurned lovers everywhere. More than three million people signed up for the application, but the affair was short-lived. Facebook broke up with the Breakup notifier.
“Hey everyone, Facebook e-mailed saying that they’ve disabled us… We are working for a fix, but ask @facebook to put is back online!” the Twitter feed for the program read Wednesday afternoon.
Facebook sent an e-mail notifying the company it would be shutting down the application because it appeared to be a “spammy application,” TechCrunch reports. The message from Facebook read:
To ensure positive user experiences on Platform, we run routine automated screens that take user feedback, machine learning and various algorithms into account and remove spammy applications. For example, if an application is making an inordinate number of stream.publish calls and receiving a large number of user reports, it may be removed by our automated systems to protect the user experience and the Platform ecosystem.
The notifier allowed users to list their crushes in their friend list. When one of those people’s relationship status changed, an e-mail was quickly sent off letting the would-be lover know that the time was ripe to send a friendly poke. It took Facebook stalking to a whole new level, as my colleague Hayley Tsukayama wrote on Monday.
Dan Loewenherz created the program after listening to his fiancée and her mother try to play matchmaker for a friend only to discover on Facebook that the man in question was in a relationship. He put his developing skills to task and created the app in a day.
Facebook has not commented on the shutdown, but the Loewenherz hopes to mend fences with Facebook and get his program back online.
Here’s hoping this is one relationship that works out.
