[fghh45sdfhr3]

All of social networking is a virus.

They all rely on viral growth, viral "features" are often pushed despite no one liking them (see everything Facebook ever did). And most disturbingly if they succeed in growing big enough (Facebook again) then not having one can become a bit of problem in real life.

Of course LinkedIn is a virus. It's what works.

[bsg75]

"Viral" and "virus" often have different meanings in a technological / web context.

Compare: "Cute cat video goes viral" vs. "Cute cat download contains a virus"

Then compare: "Linked grows with viral features" vs. "LinkedIn is a Virus" (with capital V).

[jeremysmyth]

Your comparisons are not parallel. The article isn't saying LinkedIn contains a virus. The constructs "Linked grows with viral features" and "LinkedIn is a Virus" are much closer than you suggest.

[aplusbi]

I don't think the article meant that linkedin grows virally though. I think it was trying to compare linkedin to a virus that spreads by hijacking your address book.

At least that's how I read it.

[bsg75]

The comparisons are not meant to be parallel. Try looking in context of the parent comment.

[Justsignedup]

true. the paradox is in the fact that without these crazy tactics the network won't grow. And once it does the network gains massive power.

Facebook did this. Guess why it worked out? Now that it's big enough nobody looks at how it got there and says "well its evil in it's marketing so we'll abandon it"

[leethax0r]

App.Net isn't like that.

[yen223]

Of course it is, there's a reason why they started giving out free invites.

[dkasper]

Sort of. One the one hand theoretically enough people will pay for it to keep it running so they don't need to resort to spammy tactics to acquire users at all costs. On the other hand they are 100% in the business of acquiring more users as proved by the addition of free accounts. The invite process for getting new people into free accounts is pretty darn viral and the number of people using App.net has increased by over 75% in the past 3 weeks.