Facebook (News - Alert) has been testing out a ton of new ideas and services as of late – from paid post promotion to its App Center. Now, Friendshake (or ‘Find Friends Nearby’) was just pulled off theshelves earlier this week.

“This wasn’t a formal release; this was something that a few engineers were testing,” Facebook announced to ABC. “With all tests, some get released as full products, others don’t. Nothing more to say on this for now – we’ll communicate to everyone when there is something to say.”

From that statement, there are a couple of different ways in which the service could go. “We'll communicate to everyone when there is something to say,” hints that Friendshake may in fact come back after all the bugs have been worked out, but it’s looking a lot more like just another failed concept.

After all, a lot of users were complaining that it could become invasive or even that it’s a little creepy, but like virtually every location-based service (LBS), Friendshake requires that the user not only be logged into the Web app, but have the actual page opened as well. 

Either way, it’s looking a lot like the now defunct service was based on Glancee, an LBS service that Facebook acquired just after purchasing Instagram a few months ago. Since Glancee’s functionality is exactly the same as Friendshake, working directly with Facebook to tell userswhich friends are nearby, it would have served as a perfect foundation for Facebook’s version, which might just mean that the only real differences were minor under-the-hood stuff or aesthetics, and some major bugs could have been present due to the transition.

It’s probably a safe bet that even if it’s not a full-fledged Web app like Friendshake, Facebook will implement some kind of detailed location-based services in mobile applications, or the purchase of Glancee will have essentially been a waste of money.

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