I don't know anyone that would put their life on hold to hope so much for a particular person to break-up with someone. However, for those who fit this category, Facebook catered to their needs with a new App called "Breakup Notifier". It might signify the quickest rise and fall in the history of apps.
By Adam Caparell of the New York Daily News
Want to keep tabs on your crush? Turns out there isn't an app for that.
Facebook pulled the plug on a trendy application Wednesday that allowed users to select "friends" whose relationship status they wished to closely monitor – or stalk, depending on your definition.
"Breakup Notifier," which had amassed well over 3 million users since going live Monday, was shutdown despite its gigantic surge in popularity.
The app worked by sending users an email whenever a "friend" altered their relationship status, theoretically putting an end to excessive monitoring of profiles for those anxious to find out whether a crush was finally single and ready to mingle.
But Facebook put its foot down.
"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 app's official Twitter account tweeted Wednesday afternoon.
Later on Wednesday, 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."
Facebook also disabled Loewenherz's personal account.
The Beverly Hills-based programmer told the News on Monday that he created the app in roughly four hours after overhearing his fiancée and her mother seeking a mate for his future sister-in-law.
"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?"