Beware! of spamming traps

The web is full of new, interesting and cool sites and services which we all want to test and play with. But most of them force you to register before you join. That’s legitimate- they give us something, we give them our membership in return- nothing wrong with that. But, and here is where you need to beware, in some cases- they ask you to sign in with you gmail or yahoo or flickr account info so that they can make it easy for you to use the service. This is not a bad idea- from the viral marketing perspective it is excellent- if I check out a new social networking service but don’t have anyone to interact with- then the service is useless. By importing my current social network I can instantly start communicating with people using the new service. BUT- and this is where you need to be careful- in some case the service will send out invitations to all your contacts which you have just given them- meaning that they have just received a ton of free addresses, and you will be seen as an annoying spammer by your friends! So be careful- import your contacts if you feel that you must (I never do this), but if you do, DO NOT allow the service to spam your friends in your name!