Friends Reunited playing catch up

12th June 2008 04:15 by lisa

Who else found an email in their inbox this morning, announcing FriendsReunited has gone completely free? The email says "[w]ith over 19 million members, we're still the best place to find your old friends". Hint of desperation there? Trying to remind us that there was a world before Facebook? What with even Vodaphone launching a TV and billboard advertising campaign about free broadband so you "don't get left in the dark" without access to Facebook, FriendsReunited obviously thought it was time to act - and who wants to pay to send messages to old friends when they can do it for free on another site? However - I'm shocked it's taken them this long! FriendsReunited could have gone free a year ago, and still raked in a profit from advertising sales. Instead they've held out - maybe waiting for the Facebook bubble to burst, or maybe just too fond of their subscription based site. I hope for their sake they haven't left it too late...