Dennis, Tell Us How You Really Feel About Facebook

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

Erick Schonfeld is the Editor in Chief of TechCrunch. He oversees the editorial content of the site, helps to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produces TCTV shows, and writes daily for the blog. He is also the father of three adorable children. He joined TechCrunch as Co-Editor in 2007, and helped take it from a popular... → Learn More

Ever wonder what the inspiration was for the Facebook Friends icon, the one with the outline of two people side-by-side? Neither have I. But now that Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley put up this side-by-side comparison of images on his Tumblog, I will never be able to look at the outline of the woman friend’s bob haircut again without thinking of Darth Vader’s helmet.

It’s just a funny photoshopped juxtapostion with the caption, “I’m sure this is where the Facebook ‘Friends’ icon came from.” I don’t want to psychoanalyze Crowley too much on this. He simply reblogged something he found amusing from someone else’s Tumblog. (That is what you do on Tumblr. It’s like retweeting). But you have to wonder if he doesn’t feel a little bit like the Luke Skywalker friend.

Before closing Foursquare’s last $20 million round, he was talking to Facebook (and others) about a possible acquisition instead. The deal never happened, and Facebook went on to launch its own rival geo-location product, Facebook Places. Interestingly, Foursquare was present at that launch., but Crowley definitely has mixed feelings about Facebook. Sort of like Luke did about Darth Vader.

Company: Foursquare
Website: foursquare.com
Launch Date: March 11, 2009
Funding: $71.4M

Foursquare is a geographical location based social network that incorporates gaming elements. Users share their location with friends by “checking in” via a smartphone app or by text message. Points are awarded for checking in at various venues. Users can connect their Foursquare accounts to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can update when a check in is registered. By checking in a certain number of times, or in different locations, users can collect virtual badges. In addition, users...

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Company: Facebook
Website: facebook.com
Launch Date: February 1, 2004
Funding: $2.34B

Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original idea for the term...

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