I’ve been getting a lot of emails like this lately, sent on behalf of friends and acquaintances:

X has added you as a friend on Tagged.
Is X your friend?
Yes/No
Please respond or X may think you said no :(

Mmm … I do like a side of emotional blackmail with my spiced ham! But what is Tagged? I visited their site this morning to find out a bit more, and followed the promising ‘About us’ link:

Tagged.com is a premier social networking destination and an ideal place for advertisers to reach their target audience.

If that page is anything to go by, the advertising side is far more important than the social networking. I appreciate their honesty, but I’m just going to keep on ignoring all those emails. ‘Sign up and be advertised at’ isn’t a compelling proposition, I’m afraid. I also find the invite-your-whole-address-book (aka spam your friends) concept that seems so central to these social networks to be more than a little dubious. Even if it is profitable.