Upset users took to Twitter, one of Facebook’s mortal enemies?, to write about it: “Facebook just told me to reconnect with a friend of mine who died a couple years ago. Not cool, Facebook,” one user tweeted. Another says: “One of my friends on Facebook has passed. FB keeps asking me to reconnect with her… FB will never be smart enough…” And another: “Facebook just suggested that I ‘reconnect’ with someone who passed away 2 years ago. That’s so messed up.”

SpeakingFaces.com is a killer new startup (revealed to the world at large by KillerStartups funnily enough) that allows you to upload a photo of yourself and then get unbiased opinions on the first impression you make from a pool of totally neutral, anonymous people. Totally neutral, anonymous people with no obligation to be nice. Eek.

So you’re out with a group of friends and meet a few random interesting people. You ask if they’re on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter….. You get round to finally trying to find them on your preferred Social Networking site and you have forgotten their name, surname or just can’t decide which John Smith they are?

Watch this space peeps! I think that for those of us who are lucky enough to be a part a of a booming industry that the world has its eye one for more than one reason, the Digital Arena in SA seems to have escaped the perils of the WW recession!

Whenever I chat to people about Facebook I refer to it as a ‘Necessary Evil’ in SA. I’m not a massive fan of Facebook – it’s a ‘closed’ network and also I feel that once people have re-connected and scanned photographs they then move on. I mean, if you haven’t interacted IRL (In Real Life) with someone in 20 years then are you about to start now?

It’s been about a week now since Facebook launched their whole Vanity URL option and everybody seems to be talking about it. Everybody, that is, except your average, everyday Facebooker. The Facebookers who sneak on at work even though it’s ‘banned’. The Facebookers who aren’t particularly tech-savvy but just as into new, fun Internet-web (which is what my dad calls all this new fangled stuff) tricks. You know the ones.

The problem is that many social networks are like the ‘Hotel California’ – ‘You can check in anytime you like but you can never leave.’ For any of you who have tried to erase yourself completely from a particular social network you know sometimes just how tricky it can be.

If you haven’t heard about Twitter then you’ve probably been living under a rock… all predictions are that during 2009 Twitter is the social network to watch.