Friends Reunited, the reunions website that has changed the way we live, is five years old on Wednesday (July 20).
More than 12 million people are now registered on the site set up in the year 2000 as a bit of fun to help co-founder Julie Pankhurst get in touch with her long-lost school friends.
To celebrate, Friends Reunited is gathering together original users of the service, uniting the people who unwittingly helped create a social phenomenon (at a birthday party at Julie's secondary school in Barnet - see photocall notice).
And an incredible total of 54,000 users of the site have demonstrated the power of Friends Reunited by voting, in a single weekend, for the Best Friends of All Time. Jesus Christ was named the Best Friend Ever, narrowly ahead of Princess Diana, with Sir Bob Geldof in third place (*full list below).
Also for the birthday celebrations, five site members have taken the place of the four people featured in the original Friends Reunited logo (pictured above). So great is the traffic on the site, the competition winners will be seen 120 million times over the next month.
Steve Pankhurst, Friends Reunited co-founder, said: "Everyone says they can't believe we've only been going for five years. I must admit I have to pinch myself when I look at all the numbers associated with Friends Reunited - they're unbelievable."
Analysis of the millions of contact emails sent via the site shows that the class of 1963 are the school leavers who keep in touch with each other the most. But, as the final term ends for the classes of 2005 all over the country, Friends Reunited has revealed that nearly a million of its users have only left school within the past five years.
Steve Pankhurst said: "You think of Friends Reunited being used to track down friends from 15 or 20 years ago, so it's quite amazing to discover that the site has become the glue that keeps people in touch almost from the moment they leave school.
"A more accurate name for the site today would be Friends United.
"I've always been a great believer in the internet's power to be a substitute for the traditional community ties that no longer exist to keep people together. Friends Reunited's real achievement has been to become a way for us all to stay connected in a disconnected world."
So successful has the original concept become that, as well as school friends, you can now track down people from university, workplaces, streets and the armed forces. And Friends Reunited has also launched three sister sites: Genes Reunited is the UK's largest ancestry site; Friends Reunited Dating is the fastest growing online dating service; Friends Reunited Jobs is a new facility for job hunters and employers.
Friends Reunited was first launched on the wave of nostalgia generated by the build-up to the millennium.
July 1999 Pregnant Julie Pankhurst becomes curious about her old school friends and has an idea for a website. Husband Steve and his business partner Jason are website developers. Julie nags them for nearly a year to put a site together for her (see picture of original screen).
July 2000 The site finally goes live from the back bedroom of Steve and Julie's suburban semi in Barnet, North London, and a few weeks later one of the first members emails to say he's had a reunion with an old school friend from 30 years ago.
December 2000 3,000 members are registered. The site is redesigned with a new logo featuring Steve's mum and dad and two friends. They will become some of the most famous faces in Britain (over the 5 years they have been viewed 6.5 billion times).
January 2001 Named 'website of the day' on Steve Wright's Radio 2 Show. 3,000 new members that week alone.
February 2001 The site becomes a full time job and needs to generate income. So a £5 charge is introduced for people wanting to make contact with their friends. 'Just looking' stays, and remains, free.
August 2001 One million members registered and up to 5 million hits being received a day.
January 2002 Membership of more than four million will double by the end of the year.
February 2002 Workplaces added to schools service to reunite old work colleagues.
August 2002 New sites launched in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
First baby: Dylan, the first Friends Reunited baby is born to Simon Smyth and Annette Livingstone from Milton Keynes. Simon and Annette dated briefly in 1982, but drifted apart and both went on to marry and divorce. The couple reunite after 18 years apart when Annette finds Simon's name on the website. They marry in 2003.
September 2002 First wedding: School sweethearts Nigel Williams and Su Price, both in their 40s, reunite after 27 years when Nigel finds Su's name on Friends Reunited. They marry five months later.
November 2002 Genes Reunited launches to help people build their family trees by using the site to find connections with each other and becomes the UK's top online genealogy destination with over 36 million names listed.
January 2003 Eighties music compilation goes Gold.
February 2003 A new management team, headed by Michael Murphy, is brought in to help develop the operation.
September 2003 Friends Reunited Dating is launched and becomes the UK's fastest-growing dating site.
February 2005 Reunion Organiser and reunion message board launched to help make organising reunions easier.
March 2005 Friends Reunited Jobs launches.
July 2005 Friends Reunited celebrates its fifth birthday.
Friends Reunited can be found at www.friendsreunited.co.uk
For case studies or to receive more information about Friends Reunited please contact Carolynne Bull-Edwards or Victoria Reed on 01883 717468 / 07932 723866 or email press@friendsreunited.co.uk
*Best Friend Ever vote
The top 10 as voted for by 53,509 members of Friends Reunited on Saturday and Sunday, July 9 and 10 (2, 000 members had nominated the initial shortlist of 10 at random):
| Jesus Christ | 12,618 |
| Princess Diana | 11,858 |
| Sir Bob Geldof | 5,294 |
| Mother Theresa | 5,160 |
| Nelson Mandela | 4,727 |
| Sir Winston Churchill | 4,601 |
| Mahatma Gandhi | 2,759 |
| Elvis Presley | 2,629 |
| Pope John Paul II | 2,073 |
| The Dalai Lama | 1,790 |