Everyone in my address book received an e-mail from me asking them to join MyLife. To each and every one of you, I apologize. Please, just delete it as the spam it is.
How that happened was, I was asked for my opinion of a "new" social networking site, and so I had to 'enroll' and become a member.. which involves building my "profile".. which involves importing "who I know" (aka "contacts").
The site/service in question is called mylife, which appears to me to be a mashup between the professional Linkedin social networking site, and PeopleFinders, the "locate long lost friends" site.
"Find Everyone & Stay Connected
across the web's most popular sites"
Of course, you need to sign up, and of course, it's free.
The first thing you'll see is a full page ad for contact lenses (which you'll need to find the teeny-tiny "no thanks" link). Then you'll see another full-page ad.. and then you'll be provided a form to fill in your personal details and build your MyLife "profile". And you'll be asked to import your contacts by providing your e-mail addresses and login passwords.
Please read that last sentence again.
Presuming you do so, and allow mylife to vacuum up your contact list (which is sent via unencrypted HTTP) it will then go through the Web and find any mention of them on the Web (such as, finding their Facebook page, Linkedin profile, etc.). It shows you some results, and 
If you spend more than 30 seconds on mylife, you're going to see this page. If you want to click any of the links this service provides, you're going to see this page. You're going to see this page a lot.
Because this page is what mylife is all about.
If you have ever used (or..tried to use) a free "people search" type website, you know how they work. You enter a person's name, and they produce a list of results.. usually included the person you're looking for. So you click on the "details", or "contact", or "more" button/link, and you're told that access to this data requires "membership". Same with mylife only worse.
I don't think I've ever seen a site nag you to buy like MyLife does. Incredible.
Let's say there was a case of "user error", and it was my fault that all my contacts got spammed (with my name on it), I still could not find one thing to recommend MyLife.
Two big thumbs down.
LinkedIn is the only "social networking" thing I do. It is free and it is aimed at professionals (I think Facebook & Twitter are teeny-bop, frankly). And if you really do a lot of looking up people (say, for genealogy), use Ancestry.com. You can get it free at your local library in most places.
And, oh yeah! Try Google. Put the person's name inside quotes for exact matches.
... doubt I'll be asked to do another review.. but I call 'em as I see 'em.
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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