Facebook Pulls Find Friends Nearby ‘Test’

Facebook killed the “Find Friends Nearby” feature only a day after it rolled out unannounced to some mobile users and under threat of a lawsuit from a company that claimed copyright infringement.

Find Friends Nearby, first called “Friendshake,” was created in-house by one of its engineers during a company hackathon and was merely a test which was rolled out to some users, according to Facebook.

“This wasn’t a formal release — this was something that a few engineers were testing,” a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable. “With all tests, some get released as full products, others don’t. Nothing more to say on this for now –- we’ll communicate to everyone when there is something to say.”

However, a company called Friendthem, which makes an app that use smartphones’ GPS signals to track friends nearby, accused Facebook of copyright infringement and threatened a lawsuit almost immediately after the feature launched. Charles Sankowich, the CEO of the company, previously told Mashable that he shared his idea with a senior Facebook executive earlier this year.

“I was amazed on Sunday to read that Facebook is blatantly stealing our idea with what they are calling ‘Find Friends Nearby,’” said Friendthem CEO Charles Sankowich in a statement on Sunday. “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. We are consulting attorneys and assuming this is true and expect to commence a lawsuit very shortly.”

After learning that the new feature was missing on Tuesday morning, Sankowich indicated that his company’s legal threat was the impetus for Facebook’s removal of the feature, while still hinting that a lawsuit could be imminent. 

“We are continuing to explore all options pertaining to filing a suit against Facebook and we will continue to seek all necessary information regarding the matter,” wrote Sankowich in an email to Mashable. “We were pleased to see that our voice has been heard and Facebook has made the right judgment to pull the feature. We strongly believe that Facebook’s decision to explore the location based friend request shows the importance and need surrounding our service.”

Find Friends Nearby notified Facebook users who enabled the feature on their cellphones whenever a Facebook friend also using the feature was near their physical location by using phones’ GPS systems. The idea was to turn Facebook into a conduit for impromptu hangout sessions with friends.
Why do you think Find Friends Nearby was pulled by Facebook? Share your ideas in the comments.


Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ymgerman


By courtesy of:  Alex Fitzpatrick
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