Hands up anyone here who"s ever gone back to check on old flames for their relationship status, their wall posts, or even preferable new targets? Truth be told there"s a little stalker in all of us.
Anyway, all that just got a little easier with a new application called Breakup Notifier, which notifies you via email when your "target" changes their relationship status on Facebook, giving you the edge to jump in while they’re still vulnerable.
The more interesting story is how the app came to be. Dan Loewenherz, the developer, was sitting one day trying to set up his fiancé’s sister with a guy. But when he looked for the profile of the guy on Facebook he found out that he was already in relationship. As one would do in such a predicament, Dan spent four hours that night making use of his programming skills to create a service which notifies you when the person you’re stalking changes his/her relationship status.
The service pings Facebook every 10 minutes to check the relationship status. Which is really useful when you’re not in touch with the target, it"s also discreet, so as long as you don"t tell anyone you"re using it, no-one is the wiser (including the target).
To get started, all you need to do is log on to Breakup Notifier, using your Facebook account, select your friends and the stalking begins. Simples.
Lowenhertz has also purchased unfriendnotifier.com and areweenemiesyet.com to set up un-friending notifications as well, which are a bit more challenging. According to Alexia at TechCrunch, Dan is thinking of asking something like 99 cents for early adopters and then bumping the price up to $4.99 sometime afterwards. So now might be the time to sign up while it"s cheap/free!
Perhaps ironically, as Neowin reader Ottsca points out in the comments, you might know before the "ex" does.
Images credit: TechCrunch