How To Catch The App Of Your Eye

The commonly held view is that Facebook is not a dating service. But if you've seen the movie The Social Network, that statement's somewhat disingenuous given the social network service's origins, or at least the original idea that someone else had that Mark Zuckerberg refined to launch his currently 600 million member internet network.

However, recent developments might lead one to wonder otherwise.

I read this week that a young southern California computer programmer launched a "Breakup Notifier" in February. The brainchild of 24 year old Dan Loewenherz, the Facebook app informs its users via e-mail once targeted friends change their relationship status.

Man, kinda takes all the work, and fun I would imagine, out of stalking the more vulnerable among your close circle of friends.

But it doesn't stop there. There's also a "Crush Notifier" where people pinpoint friends they're interested in and if that person's interested they each get an e-mail telling them of their mutual attraction.

Rounding out this tasteless troika of tentative but targeted testimonials is something called the "Waiting Room" where the love of one's life is e-mailed that someone is interested in them. To find out who it is, they need only drop their paramour, change their Facebook relationship status to single and - "bang" - Cupid strikes.

Really. This is all true. This is too stupid to make up. It stands on it's own as stupid without any help from me.

Me? I'm long past the dating scene. Although as I recall it was much more fun in bars before the internet or even Facebook existed.

But I can see where this is going. The more "mature" Facebook users (read baby boomers) will demand apps of their own.

I'm sure the first will be "Bad News Notifier" - ie. "The cat got up onto the roof last week..."

The second will be "What Happened Then Notifier" - ie. "Mom went and got the ladder out to go up after her..."

And the last will be "The Upshot Notifier" - ie. "The funeral's scheduled for Thursday."

This post first appeared at The Parody Files, my blog home away from home.