Let’s say that you’ve been kicked to the curb, and now you want to flaunt your new hottie.
The only problem is that you don’t have a new hottie to flaunt. Well, now a new company, Cloud Girlfriend, promises to create a make-believe girlfriend to impress your thousands of make-believe Facebook friends.
According to Cloud Girlfriend, getting involved all over again is as simple as 1, 2, 3:
“Step 1: Define your perfect girlfriend. Step 2: We bring her into existence. Step 3: Connect and interact with her publicly on your favorite social network. Step 4: Enjoy a public long distance relationship with your perfect girl.”
The buzz about Cloud Girlfriend is becoming an outright clamor, as the lonely-hearts, the fabulists, and the suddenly single pre-register for the opportunity to change that facebook relationship status.
But all is not a go just yet, cautions technology reporter Christopher Mims; for starters, these make-believe girlfriends had better be real people, or Facebook will shut them down.
“Unless it’s powered by actual human beings, Cloud Girlfriend is almost certainly a violation of Facebook’s terms of service, which disallow accounts that do not belong to real people,” Mims notes. “That’s too bad (from a business perspective) because it’s very likely that a service like this could succeed.”
Yet another problem for the service is the profile jackers; people (or corporations) who create profiles of others without permission.
Matthew Herper reported a string of Facebook impersonations that appeared to be related:
“My trip from Facebook to fakebook began in February when I got a friend request from Rick Weiss, the former Washington Post science writer. I’d admired Weiss’ work for years and was thrilled to speak on a panel with him in Madison, Wis.; I accepted the request immediately.
Except, of course, this wasn’t the real Rick Weiss. Someone had copied Weiss’ profile, including his phone number, e-mail and family photos, and had friended more than 100 people.”
The fake Facebook girlfriend could be successful solution for some; but users are becoming savvier about detecting fake Facebook profiles, thanks to the proliferation of spammers, private investigators, divorce attorneys and even bill collectors, on the popular site.
After announcing the “new” girlfriend, your Facebook friends are likely to check the person’s network and affiliations, and may even attempt to “friend” her as well. Will the fake hottie respond to all pokes, invitations and friend requests, or will she systematically post one-way messages on the client’s wall from time to time?
Hmmm.
Cloud Girlfriend sounds like a novel idea, but the potential for someone finding out that you have a make-believe girlfriend may be more embarrassing than your relationship dry spell.
Perhaps finding a real girlfriend is the better way to go.
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Photo: Professional model; not a Cloud Girlfriend.
