Launched five years ago today by web designer Steve Pankhurst and his wife Julie to track down her old school friends and equip her with IT skills for a return to work after her maternity leave, the phenomenally successful website Friends Reunited now has 12 million members, writes Simon Crerar.
Run initially from a three-bed semi in Barnet, north London, the site hit critical mass in May 2001 – the point when anyone registering would recognise at least one name. By August 2001 there were one million members. One man was reunited with his mother after 53 years. Another was reunited with his cat after 10 years – his university flatmate had kept it. Numerous childhood sweethearts rekindled old passions. The oldest member was a 99-year-old woman searching for old school friends. Within a year the first Friends Reunited baby arrived, followed by an 80s compilation CD that sold over 100,000 copies.
Increasingly, Friends Reunited's uses are not limited to those envisaged by its founders. Employers are employing the site as a "third reference", to check on the attitude and suitability of job applicants.
In one withering, explicit and abuse-filled message, a woman denounced her husband for alleged infidelities, listing the intimate details of the affair and full details of the woman she accused of tempting him away from the family home.
A retired teacher won £1,250 damages from a former pupil after defamatory comments were posted on the site, a rare victory because publishers and not individuals are normally sued for libel.
And as this article details, the police have used the site to capture a paedophile teacher, trace associates of a murder victim and snare a bigamist.
