Friends Reunited

Founded by Steve and Julie Pankhurst, Friends Reunited is a Britain web site that helps users get in contact with people from their past. Registered users can search schools, universities, streets and various other places in order to locate old friends. For an annual fee, users can send messages to other users.

The site has also lent its name to various CD specialising in popular music of the past (specifically the years 1970 to 1989.) It has branched out to include a dating service, a genealogy element, Genes Reunited which allows users to trace their family tree, and a recruitment service for users to find new jobs.

Friends Reunited has become popular enough that its uses have gone beyond the intentions of its designers. According to the Register, potential employers use entries there to identify weak points in job applicants . Friends Reunited has been used by bitter partners to get revenge on those who have abandoned them and users have even been sued for the comments that they have made on Friends Reunited about other people .

In 2005, the similar web site SchoolFriends Australia & New Zealand changed its name to Friends Reunited, joining with the UK site. Both services will allow matching from each others databases in the near future, though this does not appear to functioning as of June 9 2005.

Friends Reunited features prominently in Ben Elton s detective novel Past Mortem (2004 in literature).

=References=

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06/24/friends_reunited_gives_third_reference/ Friends Reunited gives third reference], Startups.co.uk (sic), The Register, 24 June 2003, verified 27 January 2005 from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06/24/friends_reunited_gives_third_reference/

[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,710179,00.html Web hath no fury like a woman scorned], Amelia Hill, The Observer, 5 May 2002, verified 27 January 2005 from http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,710179,00.html

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/05/21/friends_reunited_user_in_libel/ Friends Reunited user in libel payout], John Leyden, [The Register], 21 May 2002, verified 27 January 2005 from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/05/21/friends_reunited_user_in_libel/

=External links=

*[http://www.friendsreunited.com/ Friends Reunited] *[http://www.genesreunited.com/ Genes Reunited], Friends Reunited Genealogy service *[http://www.friendsreuniteddating.com/ Friends Reunited Dating] *[http://www.friendsreunitedjobs.com/ Friends Reunited Jobs] *[http://www.friendsreunited.com.au/ Friends Reunited Australia & New Zealand]