Video: UW students develop online social networking technology

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SEATTLE - Sharing photos online can be a bit scary for Facebook and MySpace users because they don't necessarily want everyone to see everything.

But new technology developed by some students at the University of Washington could soon change online social networking.

"Friendbo" started out as a class project for UW post graduated student Michael Toomim.

"I guess the idea first came about because I realized that a lot of my life I had online on my computer, but it wasn't being shared with people," said Toomim.

Because some things you only want some people to see, like party pictures.

"My mom is on Facebook, my dad is. All my professors are on Facebook now. It's hard for me to share stuff with my friends without them seeing everything," said Toomim.

So Toomim and co-founder Nathan Morris developed Friendbo, an application that allows online social networkers to upload photos and protect the photo group with questions that only people in that group would be able to answer.

"So someone for family photos would be like 'What is my Michael Vittis nickname?'  People in my extended family would know that," said Morris.

Much like real life socializing, the security strength depends on the question. It would protect users from unwanted access to certain photos. 

"I talk to some employers and they say, 'Yeah, we have people from every school' and they go and log onto your network and check your Facebook page," said Toomim.

Founders also see Friendbo's broader uses on Flickr and MySpace.

"We'd like all these Web sites to be able to use it," said Toomim. "We're trying to release a Web service to help people use the same kinds of questions to cross different Web sites so if I answer your stuff on Facebook, maybe I can go and see your stuff on Flicker too."

In addition to the patent that's pending on the program, a $50,000 grant and a group of UW professors are helping this group of UW students to commercialize the product.