A recent log-in to Friends Re-United reveals why they’re history

I hadn’t been to Friends Re-United for a long time. That in itself says something about its design and underlying thinking.

So why hadn’t I been?

Even when it first came out I couldn’t be bothered to go there often.  It was too slow and it forced me to try to find places and people it’s way.  By category.  By institution.  Oh – and then I only found people IF they’d taken the time to add themselves to that institution by the same clumsy process.

Adding yourself to places?  What’s that all about?  We just ARE! Isn’t that enough?!?  Don’t other just people know us as us, not as ‘school->year->us’?  Doh.

That’s why Facebook wins and Twitter wins even more.

This morning, I logged into Friends Reunited but before I’d dragged down more than a couple of menus and waited for a couple of clunky page reloads en route to trying to find a place I worked at… I just gave up.

FR, forget site facelifts.  Either shift your whole understanding or shut down because your thinking is history.