A few examples on how this can be used:  Say you have a certain breed of dog, you can upload a picture of your dog under that breed.  Or, if you like cooking, you can share your favorite recipe by adding a note to the “cooking” interest.  You can also post notes of your favorite TV show episodes, movies, sports, philosophy, the possibilities are just endless.

The idea behind this tool:  Since you already share the interest with your connection, adding a note or a photo is a great way to start a conversation. It also adds a new dimension of depth to the experience of getting to know your connections.

Over the next couple months, our plan is to further expand this idea – to enable people to connect via specific interests.    This would be an addition to our current system of running daily connections based on people who share the greatest amount of your interests.

Another feature that was just released, is a concept we developed called “Photo Fairness”.  In order to see pictures others have uploaded, you will need to have uploaded your own.  Hopefully this tool encourages more people to share their pictures.

And, we now have a box that encourages people to send messages to others who they send Friend Up requests to.  One complaint we have had based on our original version, is that often people would just send Friend Up requests without saying anything.  Perhaps this is due to the “Friend Collecting” phenomena we see through other social networking sites.   As a result, the act of sending a “Friend Up” request often lacked any substance and would bore people after a period of time.  This adjustment should be the first step towards improving this experience.   In the future, we plan to further refine the Friend Up request process, so that it fosters more communication and a substantive experience.  One such idea for this – is requiring not simply a message be sent to the other person, but a substantive comment on a shared interest.

We also have a series of more minor updates that should help provide everyone with a better experience.

We are looking forward to future updates of our site.  The idea behind each update, is we hope to further increase the way people engage and interact with others.  Our site is never a final product – always a work in motion

Over the next few months we have many great things in store, and we are all very excited.  To be continued…

First, to offer a background:

FriendUp is a concept that was conceived back in August of 2010, and went live at the end of April, 2011.

I had spent some time traveling prior to then, and a question came into my mind:

There are approximately 6 billion people in the world.  Of these 6 billion people, are there, say, 10 – 20 people that I don’t know, who I should probably meet?  Who would these people be?  And how would I connect with them?  The ultimate goal of FriendUp is to provide an answer this question.

The mechanics behind FriendUp are as follows:

It is a user-defined hierarchy of human interests (Interest Map).   Each person using the site selects and rates the interests that are important to them.  If an interest doesn’t exist in the hierarchy, a person can suggest it.

Our system then connects people to others, based on the total amount of shared interests + the depth of each interest.  The idea being, if there were 1,000,000 people, who would be the 12 people who share the most commonality with you?

When we meet new people, one thing we look at, is common ground.   Common ground creates a bridge to the soul of another.  The FriendUp Interest Map is meant to be this bridge.   And being that it is user-defined, it is a bridge without limits.

That said, just because you share a ton of interests with someone, still doesn’t mean you are going to get along.   You will have plenty to talk about, and plenty of perspectives to share.  I suspect, your minds might be wired in a similar fashion.   As a result – for the connections that do become friends, those friendships should be based on some very deep and substantive components.  And in my opinion, being able to forge such connections in a highly efficient manner is currently still a vast, untapped frontier of the evolution of the internet.

While Interests are the core component of connecting people, we also have some filters as well – that provide further contexts to the connections.  Currently they can be applied towards age range, gender, and location preference.   In the future we plan to add further filters on an as-needed basis.

FriendUp is meant to be a way to meet extremely like-minded people.  As we have more and more people who join and map their interests in increasing levels of depth, the results should become more and more interesting and valuable for all who use the site.

It is also important to note, the intention behind this site is not meant to be a dating site.  Its simply supposed to be an environment through which you can meet many interesting people.

As time progresses, our ideas and features will as well.  We look forward to sharing with you what we have learned, and deeply appreciate feedback that you may have.

Sincerely,

Paul Grossman
CEO, Founder  FriendUp.com / Globevision Media LLC

However, as we delve deeper into our interests, they reveal various facets of ourselves.   Whether it be a love for a specific type of art, a type of food, a specific song, a specific era of history, or a spiritual philosophy we have in life.  Or even a particular charitable endeavor that is close to our hearts.   Each of these facets is a component, or expression, of a key that is unique to each of our minds.

In order to get the best results, one must be as precise as possible when defining their own interests, and what is important to them.   By being precise, you are most likely to connect to those who are extremely like-minded.  As we have more users, the nature of your results should be the equivalent of “pulling needles out of haystacks”.