Sort of message with “social network tag” and with arcane term “AOL” makes this post look geeky but its just a rant of frustration.

I got an invite for BEBO (a social network by AOL, social network boleto orkut type ka website). I decided to have a look at just another lame effort by AOL to capture preexisting business by copying already successful idea with no innovation (read Propeller, the digg clown clone) .

After some mandatory form filling to register BEBO asks you to import contacts.

When it imported contacts it displayed a list of friends present on BEBO and a list of friends who can be invited. It had check box against name of friends. If person is checked he will be invited otherwise he will be excluded.

Friends already present on BEBO are unchecked by default and friends not using BEBO are checked.

Now there is a button to select all contacts you like to add from people using BEBO. But there is no button to un-select all who are not using BEBO.

Not a big issue you can either skip finding this shady or just unclick a few hundred people. But AOL lays another trap in design. There are three buttons on the page to proceed, tagged “ADD FRIENDS”. One at the top, other in the middle and one at the bottom to give a feel that first button is to add people who are using BEBO. Second one to add people who are in network of your friends and third one to invite people to join BEBO. But all the three buttons submit the same form.

So in the end it happens that you end up inviting almost everyone in your friends list who is not using BEBO.

Now question is why am I blaming BEBO for unethical practice. I could have ignored the invitation at the first place instead of being a curious cat. I could have ignore the suggestion to import contacts. I could have skipped the step to invite people once i realized that I cannot uncheck people who have not joined BEBO.

Problem can be that BEBO designers never thoughts through this. How ignorant? Or they thought through this and implemented this to “lay trap” for people who join them and do not realize how they are helping BEBO to get “viral” but are loosing their reputation in their social network.

PS: Click on images to zoom
PPS: Sorry for the spam.

Response from Bebo Support

Thank you for your email. Sometimes after completing a task or entry on Bebo you are taken to your email address log-in page.

If you decide to log-in to your Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo email account address book at that time to send friend requests, keep in mind that all of your contacts are selected by default. You must UNCHECK anyone you do not want the email sent to.

If you do not want to use this option, you can simply ignore it by navigating to a different tab/page.

DO NOT enter your password or follow any steps if you are unsure of what you are being requested.

Please contact me again if you still need my help.

Kindest Regards
Chance D.