Facebook Restores Breakup Notifier

Facebook stalkers can breathe sigh of relief -- or yearning -- today as Facebook reinstates Breakup Notifier for use on its site.

Facebook restored the application Monday after blocking it Feb. 23 -- just three days after it was released. Shortly before being blocked, the application had approximately 3 million users.

In a message to Dan Loewenherz, the application's creator, Facebook said that the move to block the application had happened automatically, though the company did not immediately respond to requests for clarification. If an application is making an inordinate number of stream publish calls [calls to the application programming interface] 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, the message said. Facebook also disabled Lowenherz's personal Facebook account, which was later restored.

Breakup Notifier allows Facebook users to keep tabs on the relationship statues of their crushes, sending email when the designated user exits a relationship.

In response to the blocking of Breakup Notifier Lowenherz created Crush Notifer, which allows Facebook users to crush friends in the hope of getting crushed back,

What does the popularity of Breakup Notifier tell us? Lowenherz wrote in Crush Notifier Blog. I believe it's that human beings, above all else, value relationships. I never knew how many people would end up using Breakup Notifier.

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