toursforfree.com

(Credit:
Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)

Coupious Coupious is one of the coolest services in this roundup. A mobile app, it can be installed on your
iPhone,
iPod Touch, or Android-based phone. With the help of those devices’ location services, it actively searches for businesses around your location and finds coupons while you’re on the go. I’ve tried it on numerous occasions and have been amazed at its speed and relevance. Once you’re ready to use one of the coupons it finds, you need only to click “Use now” and you’re all set. And it’s free.

CouponCabin When I’m looking to save a few bucks, one of my first destinations is always CouponCabin. Unlike other sites that throw any company’s deal at you, CouponCabin sticks to major stores like Target, Walmart, GameStop, and a few others. All the coupons are up-to-date and new deals are placed on the site every week. And since you can search by company or category, you probably won’t miss a single deal at the places you frequent.

DealDivine DealDivine is unique in the coupon space. Instead of simply putting as many coupons on the site as possible, it applies a Digg-like engine that lets users vote on which coupons are best. There’s just one problem: there aren’t that many coupons and the site’s few users are not active. But when there are coupons placed on the service, they’re usually valuable.

Shortcuts Shortcuts, which is owned by AOL, is one of the best coupon sites on the Web. Similar to Coupons.com, the site provides manufacturer coupons for free in a design that’s superior to most of the other sites in this roundup. The sheer number of coupons is enough to get you to Shortcuts, but once you get there, you quickly realize that if you don’t want to leave the site to try out others, you’ll be perfectly fine–it has the best coupons and user experience of any coupon site.

CouponTweet If you’ve been searching Twitter to find deals, CouponTweet offers to do the heavy lifting for you. The service allows you to tell it what kind of deals you’d like to receive. It then searches around Twitter to find deals. When it does, it lets you know via a tweet. So far, the selection isn’t all that great, but that could change if more people use Twitter to promote deals. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Currently it’s in private beta.

CouponGood If you’re an online shopper, CouponGood is a good first place to check before you decide to buy something. The site provides coupons for online companies exclusively. With the help of a simple design, it makes it easy to find any deal you’re looking for. Simply input the URL of a company that you’re considering buying from and the site will see if it has any active coupons available. Based on my testing, every site I searched for had at least one active coupon, ranging from free shipping to 20 percent discounts. And since the site’s free, you’ll only need to click a link or input a code at checkout to activate it.

SavingPiggy keeps it to the best stores.

CouponsDealuxe CouponsDealuxe doesn’t provide the sheer quantity of deals that you’ll find on sites like Coupons.com or CouponsAlbum, but the site does do a nice job of finding tech deals. In fact, it’s filled with software and hardware coupons. But since there are so many other sites that provide the same coupons in packages designed much better, I’m not convinced CouponsDealuxe should be on your radar. Editors’ note: this blog originally misspelled CouponsDealuxe.

CouponAlbum CouponAlbum is huge. That’s the best way to describe it. Unlike some services that specialize in a particular area, CouponAlbum wants to be your one-stop shop for everything that’s on sale right now. Whether it’s software, toys, sporting goods, or food, the site has it all. And since it’s updated weekly, you’ll never run out of deals.

Coupons.com When you’re getting ready to go to the local supermarket or grocery, go to Coupons.com before you leave. The site offers a variety of printable coupons on goods ranging from food to cleaning supplies and they’re available for use anywhere the products are sold. I use Coupons.com each week and I save myself at least $10 in grocery costs during that time. It’s an extremely useful site that’s designed well and makes it easy to find coupons. It’s a must-see.

FatWallet As soon as you go to FatWallet, you’ll be shocked by how much information is packed on its home page. From cash back shopping to a coupon search, you’ll find anything you need on FatWallet. And while you can easily click through different links to find coupons on FatWallet, the best way to find them is through that search feature. I searched for a variety of companies and each time, a coupon was displayed that was both valid and worth using. And because it requires keywords to help you through the search, simply inputting “Apple” will give you all the deals that are available from places like the Apple Store and third-party retailers like MacMall. That said, there are only 2,500 retailers supported on FatWallet, so you might be hoping for more. But in my experience, I was perfectly satisfied with its offering.

CouponMom CouponMom is targeted at, you guessed it, mothers, but I’m not sure it’s even worth trying out. The site requires you to sign up and promises big deals, but when I used it, I quickly realized it couldn’t compete on any level with Coupons.com. It’s an alternative if for some reason you don’t like Coupons.com.

Coupons.com is a fine coupon service.

RetailMeNot If you’re looking for coupon codes and you enjoy tag clouds, RetailMeNot is for you. The site’s coupon selection is ample and includes codes for online retailers like eBay, Amazon, and others. And although I’m not usually fond of tag clouds, I found that it worked quite well on RetailMeNot and helped me find the kind of products I was looking for.

DealLinker Much like DealDivine, DealLinker uses a Digg-like voting mechanism to help users find coupons and deals. The site lists the latest coupons in products ranging from groceries to electronics. Based on the quality of the deal and how much savings it provides, users vote it up or down. DealLinker’s handy filtering tool makes it easy to find coupons based on when they were made available, or find those that have the best rating. Even better, the site has a more active user base than DealDivine, so you’ll have a better sense of what’s good and what’s not.

Why pay list price? Especially now, when you’re probably watching every penny? One of the best ways to get a deal on anything is to use a coupon. But instead of searching around the house for scissors and chopping up circulars, check out these 18 online services that give you what you need to save you cash on your next purchase.

Adpera It might not provide coupons in the conventional sense, but Adpera finds the best e-mail ads from retailers and displays them on the site. From designer sportswear to shoes and housewares, Adpera’s selection is incredible. And searching for and finding deals is made simple with the help of a prominent search box at the top of the page. Adpera is basically one big spam folder. But instead of annoying you, it actually saves you some cash.

SavingPiggy You won’t be impressed by the quantity of stores SavingPiggy supports. In fact, the site has the fewest of any service in this roundup. But for what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. The site’s coupons come from major retailers like Amazon and the Apple store, so it doesn’t waste your time with companies that you’ll probably never buy products from anyway. But I did find one issue with the site: it still has Circuit City rebates listed on its coupons page.

(Credit:
Coupious)

ShopLocal ShopLocal provides all the weekly ads companies offer and gives you access to them so you can flip through them and find some deals. Though you can find that elsewhere, ShopLocal goes one better: it automatically finds your location and fills you in on all the deals in your area. From groceries to electronics, the site has it all. In fact, it found that there were 19,543 active deals in my town alone.

(Credit:
Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)

Valpak Much like ShopLocal, Valpak adds an element of community to the service. Instead of searching for specific coupons as soon as you get to the site, Valpak asks you to input your city and state or zip code. Once you do, it delivers all the coupons in your area for any product you can think of. I searched for my area and found thousands of coupons and deals. That said, all of the coupons available on Valpak need to be printed out and brought to the store, so don’t expect any online deals.

Coupious is unique and worth using.

CoolSavings If you’re looking for a full-featured site that includes both printable and online coupons from retailers on a wide range of disciplines, CoolSavings is for you. The site offers coupons for companies that you might have never heard of, and some that that are probably right down the street. The sheer quantity of coupons on CoolSavings is amazing. Unfortunately, though, CoolSavings’ collection of free coupons isn’t that helpful. In order to access the more sought-after deals, you’ll need to sign up for the site. Once you do, you’ll be happy: from personal finance to groceries, there are coupons for everything on CoolSavings.

Will it be a little expensive? Sure. But maybe as parents, they’ll decide that they really don’t need that new pair of shoes they’ve wanted because they would rather make their kids happy than see them upset. And maybe by buying that video game console or those three new games, they win too: they get to do something they’ve enjoyed all their lives and at the same time, they’ll be doing something they enjoy with the people in their lives that matter most.

“I think it’s going to hold up a lot better than other industries,” Mindy Mount, chief financial officer of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division told Reuters. “We remain cautiously optimistic.”

Check out Don’s Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed

Years ago, the average gamer was a teenager. During that time, that teenager’s parents couldn’t have cared less about gaming and didn’t quite understand why their child was willing to sit in front of a television all day and make a character jump on screen when they could go out and do something else.

And just as they did when they were kids, their children will ask them for some games this holiday season and maybe a new video game console that they just couldn’t afford a few months ago.

I understand that saying children are the key to success this holiday season seems a bit awkward considering the average age of a gamer is around 30 years old, but if we think clearly about the dynamics of the industry, I think children are the real driving force behind the industry’s upswing.

But as those teenagers grew up, gaming grew with them; it didn’t stay in the past and only cater to children. Instead, gaming has become an activity that appeals to the thirtysomething who has been gaming since the 1970s, as well as the kid who never knew what the 1990s looked like.

Nintendo feels the same way. The company’s president, Reggie Fils-Aime, told Reuters that as he looks towards the holiday season and the industry’s performance, “cautiously optimistic is quite appropriate.”

And now, as households are filled with two generations of gamers instead of one, it’s the child that has been the backbone of gaming’s incredible rise in popularity. Sure, the gamers were always there, but now those gamers have a new generation to share their interest with and sales have shown that.

But in order to drive home the point that children are the driving force behind gaming’s impending success this holiday season, we need to go a step further. We need to realize that as those older gamers had children, their children suddenly came first in their lives. And as each holiday season became less important as the years progressed, they had meaning again when their children were born. For the first time in years, average gamers who were more concerned about hanging out with friends than Christmas Day, cared about Christmas again because their kids cared.

But as those teenagers grew up, they started families and started having children of their own that now share their interest in gaming. Years ago, they had LAN parties with buddies from school and challenged their friends at their parents’ house. Today, they play multiplayer titles in the comfort of their own living room with their sons and daughters in a new era of gaming.

So why all the hope? Because the video game industry is one of the few sectors of the economy that may have the ability to turn the tide and come out on top even though other areas are suffering.

Reuters recently issued a report saying the video game industry may be as “recession-proof” as some in the sector have claimed. So far, sales have been relatively high and it looks like the industry is insulated from some of the problems facing the broader tech field.

So you’re right, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and the rest: this will be a big year for gaming. But not because of the usual suspects.

Call me crazy, but this holiday season, I think parents will go “without” so their children can have what they want. And although the average gamer is older, their children are the real reason gaming is popular today and why it will only grow as the years progress and more generations welcome video games into their homes.

And yet, we find ourselves in a predicament. The days of prosperity are behind us for a few years and parents need to tighten their belts and be more prudent this holiday season. Sure, they’ll buy a nice sweater for their mothers and get a cheap gift for their secret Santa, but when it comes time to spend most of the money they have saved this holiday season, they’ll be trying their best to make their children as happy as possible.

And although the reasons for that forthcoming success can be tied to numerous areas, like the popularity of the
Wii and gaming finally competing on the same level with film, I think we miss the core reason for gaming’s success today and during the holiday season: children.

“Even as our American automakers are undergoing a painful recalibration, they are retooling and reimagining themselves into an industry that can compete and win, because millions of jobs depend on it,” Obama said at the event.

To spur demand for electric vehicles, the stimulus act gives consumers a federal tax credit worth up $7,500 for the purchase of plug-in electric vehicles.

Obama speaks at Southern California Edison's electric-vehicle testing center in Pomona, Calif., on Thursday.

The Department of Energy is making another $400 million available to build and test the infrastructure needed for plug-in electric vehicles. This includes charging stations and training for technicians in electric vehicles.

Echoing comments he made during his address to Congress last month, Obama said the U.S. lags other countries in plug-in battery technology, which the grant program is designed to address.

“Demand is not the issue. It’s the ability to supply,” he said. “You still need to make the investments in the platforms today. Otherwise, you miss the window of opportunity.”

The stimulus plan passed earlier this year set aside $2 billion to jump-start electric-vehicle manufacturing. Out of that total, $1.5 billion is available for U.S. battery manufacturing and $500 million for related technology, such as electric motors.

President Barack Obama on Thursday launched a $2.4 billion program to boost development of plug-in electric vehicles in the U.S., including grants to finance domestic production of auto batteries.

But executives at U.S. auto companies have voiced concern over the ability of the industry to supply enough batteries for an oncoming wave of plug-in electric sedans. Creating the capacity for hundreds of thousands of plug-in passenger cars in two or three years requires big investments today, Charles Gassenheimer, the CEO of Ener1 said on Tuesday.

“Show us that your idea or your company is best-suited to meet America’s challenges, and we will give you a chance to prove it,” Obama said, addressing electric-vehicle companies. “Every company that wants a shot at these tax dollars has to prove their worth.”

The funding will help meet the president’s goal of 1 million plug-in vehicles by 2015 and position U.S. companies for the next wave of transportation technology, Obama said.

Because the company considers it strategic technology, General Motors earlier this year decided to build the battery packs and power controls for its forthcoming Chevy Volt electric sedan in-house. Battery companies A123 Systems and Ener1 have already applied for DOE loans and are expected to seek participation in the $2 billion battery manufacturing grant program.

Obama spoke at Southern California Edison’s Electric Vehicle Technical Center in Pomona, Calif., where he said the Department of Energy has now started taking grant proposals from electric-vehicle battery makers.

(Credit:
CBS)

The Atlanta-based airline plans to eventually outfit its domestic fleet of 330 aircraft with Wi-Fi, which amounts to about 60 percent of Delta’s seats flown every day.

Virgin America rolled out its Gogo Inflight Internet service to passengers on a single Wi-Fi-enabled plane on November 24. By the second quarter of 2009, the company expects to offer Wi-Fi on its entire fleet of planes.

The service will be available initially on shuttle flights between Washington’s Reagan National, New York’s LaGuardia, and Boston’s Logan airports, according to the report.

Delta Air Lines is expected to begin offering Wi-Fi service to its passengers on Tuesday, according to a report in The Washington Post.

CNET News’ Marguerite Reardon contributed to this report.

Several other airlines, including American Airlines and JetBlue, have announced similar in-flight Wi-Fi plans.

The wireless service, which will enable passengers to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, PDAs, or smartphones, will cost $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours. The airline is partnering with Aircell, which also supplies in-flight Wi-Fi technology to other carriers, such as American Airlines and Virgin America.

Airlines have been talking about offering in-flight broadband for years. But so far, the service hasn’t really caught on. Boeing first offered a service called Connexion, which debuted in 2004 on a few international carriers, including Lufthansa, SAS, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, and Singapore Airlines.

Boeing then canceled the service in 2006, when it was unable to find business among domestic airlines. A big problem with Connexion was that the entire system was bulky and weighed around 400 pounds, making it nearly impossible for it to be used on smaller domestic planes.

Police officers who said they were investigating the distribution of “harmful information” from a new business’ IP address found a 30-minute adult video on a hard drive and fined the owner 1,900 RMB ($277 USD), according to a reported translated by ESWN.

The report isn’t clear on what law was used to fine Ren. At first it was under a law designed to punish someone for obtaining illegal revenue. Ren, however, told media that the video was purely for personal viewing.

Ren told a reporter he is waiting for an administrative review that he hopes will lead to a lower fine–or no fine at all.

The fine, no small amount for a newlywed with a new small business like Ren Chaoqi, has apparently ignited a controversy on some Chinese-language websites.

The crux of the legal claim appears to be the distribution function of BitTorrent, which was how the man accused, Ren Chaoqi, said he obtained the video.

This curious case, while quirky, exposes interesting workings of internet society, passing of information, and China’s legal system. Check out the full article.

[UPDATE: I wrote the below before seeing an update on Danwei noting that the fine was canceled. This only underlines the power of online controversy, especially considering that the cancelation notice says the man was still guilty: they are merely using discretion in this case.]

Later, the citation said the offense was copying illegal material. This is where BitTorrent comes in. Indeed, unless settings are specifcally set up for someone to be a “leech” only, downloading from BitTorrent also includes transmitting.

According to the article, online opinion is firmly on Ren’s side:

According to an Internet survey conducted by Sina.com: 55,259 persons voted and 96.52 (53,251 persons) thought that “this person did not illegal distribute and exhibit pornographic videos and that the negligible impact should not have incurred such as heavy fine.” At the Nanyang bar at Baidu, a similar survey showed that 99% were bothered by the police action.

Zack Urlocker of MySQL fame was at the Stanford Accel Symposium earlier this week and, along with some other open-source heavyweights, participated on a panel that attempted to cull some lessons learned in building open-source businesses.

commentary

The critical thing will be to ensure that open-source business doesn’t become so pragmatic that it loses sight of its ideals. If it does, it will become just like the world it has tried to leave behind.

If you didn’t get to attend the event, don’t panic. Urlocker has written up a few key principles.

You want to build on the momentum and goodwill of the community to drive adoption, but it’s not about trying to sell to the hard-core community. They are your evangelists. You need to operate transparently to earn the trust of the community.
Find a way to distinguish between capabilities that businesses want and individual community members may not even care about. For example, Scott Dietzen mentioned e-mail features related to archiving and compliance issues are really only relevant to larger companies. And as he noted, community members will even support the the idea that if you need those features, you should pay.

Here are two of my favorites:

This last principle has become conventional wisdom in the open-source business community, but it’s still not widely understood. Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile recently did a good job of explicating this “open core” model, and I’ve spilled my share of digital ink on the topic, as well.

Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.

Adrian Tuck, CEO, Tendril

How much will an immediate cash infusion help? Plenty, according to Tuck, who says the public will see a quick payback from the coming investment in this nascent industry. For example, he predicts that for every $100 the U.S. Department of Energy invests, Tendril can save $100 for the consumer within 18 months.

“I think it will act like a massive accelerator,” said CEO Adrian Tuck, whose company makes sensors that consumers can use to monitor and control their consumption of energy.

You know the cliche about time being of the essence? It’s a refrain I heard again and again during the course of interviewing CEOs as part of a CNET News special report examining the progress and prospects of green tech.

The paradox is that the most interesting companies in the field often happen to be the very ones who don’t have access to capital because of the economic crisis.

Like a lot of green-technology companies, Tendril is waiting for the federal stimulus money to start flowing.

(Credit:
Tendril)

“What we and others like us bring to the table is speed,” he says.

But echoing a common concern, Tuck also hopes that Tendril and other
green-tech start-ups will not need to wait too long before the spigots open.

But despite the confident tone that Tuck and other CEOs working in the green-tech industry voice, one big uncertainty remains: Will the money get into the hands of smaller, entrepreneurial outfits in the beginning, or will Uncle Sam prefer to deal with the bigger, established companies? How that question gets answered may very well decide the fates of many of the companies whose ambition is to change the world.

Right now 3G network speeds using wireless data cards from a carrier are only as fast as a slow DSL connection. And with carriers offering DSL at cheap prices, I’m not sure people will pay a premium for mobility. But as speeds improve and new 4G services like WiMax come on the scene, it might change the story.

“As wireless network quality improves and unlimited calling becomes increasingly pervasive, we expect the trend toward wireless substitution to continue,” Alison LeBreton, vice president of client services for Nielsen Mobile, said in a statement. “In a tightening economy every dollar counts, and consumers are more and more comfortable with the idea of ditching their landline connection.”

More than 20 million households in America have cut the cord and are going wireless for their home phone service, according to a Nielsen Mobile report released Wednesday.

So who are these cord cutters? Nielsen says that many of them are likely to be on budgets, with about 59 percent of them earning incomes less than $40,000 a year. They also tend to live in smaller households with only one or two residents at home. And many of these cord cutters get rid of their traditional phone lines after changing jobs or moving. In fact, 31 percent of those who canceled their home service did so after moving.

Wireless substitution may only be the beginning for some folks, LeBreton said. Some users may even be tempted to cut the broadband cord, too. While this may be the case for some users, I doubt it will become a widespread phenomenon for a long time.

Based on the numbers, it looks like cord cutters are saving money, too. According to Nielsen, people who have cut the cord use their cell phones 45 percent more than those who have a regular phone at home. But on average they save about $33 per month in a household of one subscriber. That figure is reduced by $6.69 for each additional wireless resident.

Still, going totally wireless isn’t for everyone. About 10 percent of customers who have cut the cord have come back to a landline service, according to Nielsen. The study also suggests that most people keep their landlines to get other services, such as satellite TV, DSL service, pay-per-view, or a security system. And about 11 percent of respondents said that they found it cheaper to buy a bundled package that included TV and Internet. While 10 percent said they wanted a landline for safety reasons.

What’s driving the trend? Nielsen says its economics. As more Americans feel the squeeze from the weakening economy, consumers are looking for ways to cut costs. Many see traditional phone service, which averages about $40 a month, as a household expense that can be cut, especially since more than 85 percent of the U.S. population also own a cell phone.

Roughly 17 percent of households in the U.S. are getting rid of their old wireline phones and using their cell phones instead. That’s a huge leap from just a few years ago when, in 2004, only 4.2 percent of households in the U.S. were wireless. The trend will likely continue as one in five U.S. households is expected to be wireless-only by the end of 2008, according to Nielsen.

Wireless operators have also been offering unlimited calling plans, which they hope will meet the needs of wireless-only users.

I hang out on Facebook a lot. Too much, maybe. Enough, certainly, to recognize a few types of unpleasant characters. I’ve come across five distinctive kinds of Facebook trolls, and I’m sure you’ve dealt with them too. Here’s some advice to stop their onslaught and make your Facebook experience just a little better.

How many times have you met someone who is a friend of a friend at a bar or party, only to come home and see a Facebook friend request sitting in your in-box? You probably don’t remember their name, and the conversation you had with them was superficial at best. It’s obvious they just want to add you to their growing list of friends and you honestly believe you’ll never see them again.

Social networks provide a slew of opportunities to connect with old friends, but that doesn’t mean you need to befriend your third-grade buddy Bill, whom you haven’t had a discussion with in 20 years. Usually they mention a time in your life the two of you shared when you were kids. Maybe it’s not the end of the world, but it does get a bit awkward when they remember that time and you don’t.

Troll type: The stranger
Confirm or ignore? Think first

So how should you handle the Old Time Nobody? Be friends with them and don’t think twice about it. Usually, they’re harmless, and either really liked you when you were younger or just want to add another person to their friends list to show off. Either way, what does it hurt? You’ll hardly communicate with them through Facebook and that will probably suffice you both. Don’t worry about it and add them to your own list.

Troll type: The ghost
Confirm or ignore? Remove

It happens to all of us: someone we don’t know tries to be our friend on Facebook. Their profile claims they graduated from the same college and they live in your general area. You know you’ve never met the person and even if you did, it was for a fleeting second and you don’t remember them at all.

Once you get their friend request on Facebook, ignore it. I hate to say it, but it’s your only option. Unless you nip it in the bud now, you’ll be getting requests to be your friend on even the smallest, most ridiculous social networks, and you’ll never be able to stop it. They may send you a few requests before they get the message, which is fine, but unless you want to be annoyed over the next year with more friend requests and ridiculous notifications on Facebook, it’s best if you turn the other cheek.

Troll type: Bar friend
Confirm or ignore? Confirm

Dealing with these people should be easy; just ignore them. But doing that without thinking could be a fatal mistake. What if you really do know the person and you forgot? That makes for an awkward reunion if you two ever see each other again. Simply deciding to ignore them probably isn’t the best move, but then again, if you really don’t know them, you probably shouldn’t follow them to satisfy their desire to have the highest number of friends in their group. Decide carefully.

Troll type: New service addict
Confirm or ignore? Ignore

Once you’ve become friends with people on Facebook, I think you enter into an agreement of sorts: you both decide to interact with each other and, most importantly, you both decide to use the service. But when your friends don’t hold up their end of the bargain, it gets annoying, doesn’t it? They sign up for the service, add friends during the first week, and never go back. They don’t have a profile picture and the only information that’s filled out in their profile is their name and birth date. They’re a member, but not really.

Troll type: Old-time Nobody
Confirm or ignore? Confirm

When it comes to handling those people, it’s best to remove them from your friends list. Sure, you’ll lose a friend too, but don’t you think they need to pay the price for agreeing to use the service and not following through? Call me old fashioned, but if someone decides to sign up for a social network, I’m a firm believer that they should use it for a reasonable amount of time and do their best to enhance the overall experience for everyone. If they’re not holding up their end, they shouldn’t be encouraged. A social network is all about interaction. If a friend doesn’t want to interact, they shouldn’t be on Facebook.

Sadly, they’ve put you in a tough position. On one hand, the term “Friend” on Facebook indicates you actually like and care about that person, i.e. they’re your actual friend. On the other hand, nobody thinks of it like that, and many want to have as many “friends” as possible. On balance, it’s probably best to add them as a friend and not worry about it. You’re sort of friends if you want to stretch the logic, and what does it hurt? You both get to add one more friend to your running total and it won’t be awkward next time you see them at the bar.

They became a friend of yours on MySpace, or maybe even followed you on LiveJournal, and ever since then, they’ve wanted to be your friend on every social network known to man. Sometimes you catch a really serious one who signs up for all the newest services before anyone, and they immediately send out invites like they’re passing out candy to kids on Halloween.