Friends Reunited to relaunch as memories site

Friends Reunited, one of the early social networks that allows users to find old school friends, is relaunching as a place to celebrate those ‘Remember when?’ moments.

Friends Reunited’s parent company brightsolid, the owner of family history sites Genes Reunited, ScotlandsPeople and the findmypast global network, has completely rebuilt the site. It will now encourage members to find, collect and share all of their most cherished memories; from heart-warming personal experiences shared with friends and family, to the national goose-bump moments we all experienced together. The new site is being launched as a beta version on Tuesday 27 March 2012.

Through the power of iconic images, users will be transported back to some of their favourite moments, including The Silver Jubilee in 1977, or Freddie Mercury’s career-defining performance at Live Aid in 1985. Using the ‘Keep’ button, members can build and add to their own nostalgic collections - saved in online boxes - from the events, places, and moments they discover and share through the site.

Straightforward privacy is a cornerstone of the new service, allowing users to store their most personal memories (including old photographs, videos, scanned ticket stubs and other memorabilia) privately. They can also share those memories with a select few, or make them public.

Starting with 10 million publicly available memories from launch, the site will span a vast range of eras and themes, with new collections being added to every day by both Friends Reunited and its members. Via on-going partnerships with The Press Association and photographic archive company Francis Frith, Friends Reunited has added a further 350,000 high quality and evocative images, covering culture, sport, music, news and places.

Chris van der Kuyl, brightsolid's CEO, said: ‘Nowhere else can you find a single place to search, collect and save the bigger, more important moments in your life, memories which, in today’s digital world, are in danger of slipping through your fingers. We need to protect our precious and shared memories for longevity, which the new site enables you to do, or we’re at risk of becoming the lost generation.’

The new site will automatically create more than 24.3 million 'Family Boxes', that’s one for each of the site’s existing members. Family boxes provide a dedicated place for families to share private memories within a small group and to begin discovering their personal history. Additionally, Friends Reunited has created more than 10,000 nostalgic collections for people to enjoy browsing, ranging from ‘I Can’t Believe We Wore It!’ to ‘Maggie Thatcher’s Britain’.

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