WebProNews

Tag: FriendThem

  • Facebook Kills “Find Friends Nearby”

    Well, that was fast. Facebook has pulled their new Find Friends Nearby feature. Introduced over the weekend, Find Friends Nearby allowed users to easily add people near them to their friends list. All you had to do was open the website on your phone’s browser (or navigate to the Find Friends Nearby section of the iOS or Android app) and have the people you wanted to friend do the same. Now, though, the new feature is dead, almost before it had the chance to live.

    In a statement to ABC News yesterday afternoon, Facebook insisted that Find Friends Nearby had been rolled out as a test. “This isn’t a formal release,” they said. While some tests get formal rollouts, others don’t. They promised to “communicate to everyone when there is something to say.” So there you have it. It was just a test that either wasn’t supposed to go live for everyone, or didn’t make the cut for some reason.

    There may, however, be more to it than that. As we told you yesterday, not all of the attention Find Friends Nearby attracted was positive. The CEO of Friendthem insisted that Find Friends Nearby was a shameless ripoff of his company’s product, an app that allows users to make location-based Facebook friend requests. In fact, as Friendthem CEO Charles Sankowich told WebProNews, he believes his company has a strong legal case against Facebook and plans to pursue the matter in court. He cited “dinner with a senior executive, multiple traded emails, and Facebook’s discussion of a ‘hack-a-thon’” as evidence that Facebook was deliberately copying Friendthem. He declined to discuss the specifics of the evidence, citing a desire not to “litigate this matter publicly,” but insisted that “we have a strong legal case.”

    If Friendthem’s case is as strong as Sankowich claims, then suddenly Facebook’s quick removal of Find Friends Nearby looks a lot different. If the product is too similar to Friendthem, then Facebook was wise to take it down. On the other hand, as we noted yesterday, Facebook’s version appears to have been born out of Glancee, another social discovery app that enabled location-based friend requests, which Facebook acquired some time ago. Sankowich insists that Glancee and Friendthem are very different services, though, and that Find Friends Nearby is clearly a ripoff of Friendthem.

    Sankowich is very confident in his company’s case and seems determined to proceed with legal action. We’ll keep you posted on how this plays out.

  • Friendthem CEO On Suing Facebook: We Have Multiple Emails [Exclusive]

    As previously reported, Friendthem CEO Charles Sankowich is saying that his company is going to sue Facebook over a new feature the company has rolled out, called, “Find Friends Nearby“. The feature comes from Facebook’s recent acquisition of social discovery app Glancee, but Sankowich says Facebook really stole the idea from him, and he intends to bring his story to a court of law.

    “We won’t litigate this matter publicly but we have ample information, including a dinner with a senior executive, multiple traded emails, and Facebook’s discussion of a ‘hack-a-thon’ that we have a strong legal case,” Sankowich tells WebProNews.

    He adds that there is more info, which Friendthem will share shortly. That should be interesting.

    “Facebook’s offering validates our belief in our product and the power of our message: ‘life happens when people connect’ and ‘you never know what a friend request can lead to’,’ says Sankowich.

    These are trademarked phrases Friendthem keeps bringing up, with regards to Facebook’s alleged theft.

    “We at Friendthem believe in the power of connectivity and we work hard in giving the world a seamless way to do so,” he adds.

    Here’s what Friendthem does, according to its website:

    Location-based Friend Requests – Imagine you meet someone at a party, a conference, or even out for a walk. This could potentially lead to a date, a new job, or just a great friendship. As you part ways, this person says “Facebook me” and then disappears. Friendthem is a location-based app which helps you find that person and send a friend request.

    In a previous article, I made the point that what Friendthem offers is similar to other social discovery apps, including Glancee (which has been around since 2010).

    “No, we are not like others,” Sankowich tells us. “They offer a lot of information and they allow their users to ‘instant message’. These are two differentials and what separates us from them. They are social networks and dating sites. We protect the users’ space and limit their exposure. We don’t ask them to put a lot of information out. Friendthem understands that our users want attention, but they want it on their terms. Others allow their users to get attention, but it is on the senders terms, not on the receivers like it is for us. Friendthem asks them to give up minimal and gain the maximum.”

    “We, like Facebook, understand there are privacy issues in this space and we are one of the few to understand it and completely respect it!” he adds.

    We’re still awaiting comment from Facebook.

  • CEO Says Facebook Stole His Idea, Expects to Sue Very Shortly

    Over the weekend, Facebook rolled out a new feature called Find Friends Nearby. It enables you to discover people around you and make new friends. It sounds like your basic social discovery functionality (the huge trend at SXSW this year).

    According to Friendthem CEO Charles Sankowich, however, it’s just a rip off of his company’s idea and trademark. Sankowich gave us the following statement:

    I was amazed on Sunday to read that Facebook is blatantly stealing our idea with the idea they are calling “Find Friends Nearby.” Facebook engineer Ryan Patterson claims the feature was born at a hackathon as “Friendshake,”, but we believe they simply stole trademarked materials of friendthem.com

    More than two years ago we trademarked “Friend them” and have had tremendous success and exposure with this concept. In February I was invited for dinner with a Facebook senior executive – and now we see that Facebook is up to their old tricks again.

    Even their language is similar to what has been on our website for a few years – “Friendthem is a location-based mobile app designed to help you make connections with people near you. Use the Friendthem app to follow up on missed connections for work and personal.”

    We are consulting attorneys and assuming this is true expect to commence a lawsuit very shortly. One would think that Facebook would have learned to play fair after being through the mud previously with legal difficulties – but now they are doing it again.

    We may not be billionaires but we are damn tough New York entrepreneurs – and we believe in this idea and will keep working to connect people.”

    Friendthem describes itself:

    Location-based Friend Requests – Imagine you meet someone at a party, a conference, or even out for a walk. This could potentially lead to a date, a new job, or just a great friendship. As you part ways, this person says “Facebook me” and then disappears. Friendthem is a location-based app which helps you find that person and send a friend request.

    Facebook, and founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg are certainly no stranger to accusations of stolen ideas, but this seems like a pretty loose idea, similar to functionality of other apps, like Sonar, Glancee and others, and frankly, something that Facebook would have done anyway. As a matter of fact, you may recall that Facebook acquired Glancee, which has been around since 2010. The acquisition, according to Facebook, is the basis for the feature.

    We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment, and will update accordingly.