Stupid Patent Of The Month: Facebook Joins The Online Dating Arms Race

Stupid Patent Of The Month: Facebook Joins The Online Dating Arms Race

6 years ago
Anonymous $CLwNLde341

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180525/17575739917/stupid-patent-month-facebook-joins-online-dating-arms-race.shtml

Earlier this month, Facebook announced that it will wedge its way into an already-crowded corner of online commerce. The social networking site plans to use its giant storehouse of personal data to create a dating service, promising to help users find "meaningful relationships," not just "hookups," as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg put it.

It remains to be seen whether Facebook's new service will be a "Tinder-killer" that users flock to, or a flop for a company that's long been beset with privacy concerns. But there's one thing Facebook, its competitors, and its detractors should all be able to agree on. When a new dating service launches, it should rise or fall based on whether it can win the trust of users—not an arbitrary race to the Patent Office.