Today I received a spam-like email:
from {CrypticSN@gmail.com}
{CrypticSN} invited you to be their friend.Click here to go to My Latest Piece where {CrypticSN} found you.
I looked at the URL for the link, and it did redirect to “mylatestpiece.com”. Being the cynical “don’t click links in email” person that I am, I typed in the address and checked it out.
Lo and behold, it’s one of the google friend connect examples I checked out a few weeks back! {CrypticSN} is listed there under my “new friend requests” in the little iframe.
I haven’t thought too much about google friend connect since the few posts I wrote about it. This generic email has me really surprised, for a few reasons.
1. It’s incredibly generic. Since it’s a friend request, I may or may not know {CrypticSN}. So sending an email from their email address may not prevent the request from a quick trip to the spam filter.
2. There is no mention of the community aspects of the site. Granted, it’s an example, but “My Latest Piece” doesn’t lend itself to being a destination I’ll be making friends at. That being said, if I were really a community member at My Latest Piece, I would probably recognize the site name and the fact that there is a notion of “friending” there.
3. Where do my friend requests go? This is the part that I think still is a major concern for GFC. If I friend {CrypticSN} here, where does that information live? Do I need to invite him to be a friend on other GFC sites, or on other networking sites? Indeed, can I?
The ability to find and request friends is clunky. There doesn’t appear to be an search functionality, so you have to navigate through “previous” and “next” links of current members to find the one you’re looking for. You may then look at their profile, including their friends, and request their friendship. There is no option for a personal note, just a confirmation asking if you’re sure you want to send a request.
I know this is a new service, but come on. The mode for managing contacts and sending messages to people has been done before. There are strategies and models that are tried and tested. What is the goal here, to find people you may know, or generically spam other people and foster a “friendship” in which you can’t even complement someone on their avatar when you “befriend” them.
Perhaps I’m too cynical, but I still fail to see the user benefits to this whole deal. While it may be great for My Latest Piece that I just returned to their site, as a user, this whole exchange has been less than satisfying.
I would explain to {CrypticSN} that it’s not him, it’s me, but I clicked “ignore” on the invite, which evidently means “hide this invite and give me no way to retrieve it.” You know, Ignore as in Delete…
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