Everybody knows the phrase: “Facebook never forgets.” Remember that one time in Vegas when you thought it would be funny to jump on that table while you were noticeably intoxicated and your friend took a not-so-flattering picture. Or that time you went on an expletive-driven rant about how ridiculous the lines are at gas stations – because really, does everyone need to fill up when you’re on the way to work?
Lucky for you, the creative minds of three undergrads from Kent State University have created an app called SimpleWash, formerly known as FaceWash, to clean up all the dirt and filth that plague your page.
Daniel Gur, Camden Fullmer and David Steinberg created the app in two days and this is exactly what college students need after posting photos, commenting and liking various items throughout their educational career. But this app is not only for college students; any person trying to join the professional world or who is already in the professional circle can take advantage of the clean-up.
Within the first week, SimpleWash had over 100,000 unique visitors. The creators came up with the idea while on the way to a hackathon (a programming convention) at the University of Pennsylvania.
“We began developing an idea of an application that would help make the process of cleaning up one’s social presence online more efficient,” says Gur.
The main benefit of using the service, which works with both Facebook and Twitter, is that it saves time in the process of locating potentially undesirable content. Plus, the service is customizable by searching for specific terms. Even though SimpleWash is currently built around searching through existing content, the authors will be releasing functionality allowing for live alerts if potentially undesirable content is posted and connected to the user.
As for the future of SimpleWash, Gur says they have already added a built-in list of Spanish words to search with, and they will be expanding the collection of languages as regularly as possible.
The creators have received a lot of great feedback from users. This has helped them to prioritize features such as internationalization – due to substantial use from around the world.
“With more control and choice at one’s fingertips, he or she can better professionalize and maintain their social networks account with peace of mind,” says Gur.
