Startups feel the lure of friend spam

Remember the days before e-mail spam? Me neither. Spam has been a daily part of most people's email experience for more than a decade, and it doesn't take long before a fresh e-mail account is polluted by spam.

It's a shame, but understandable. E-mail lets online vendors – reputable and otherwise -- touch millions of consumers for very little cost. However, filters, CAN-SPAM and other countermeasures have made life much more challenging for marketers. So challenging, in fact, that vendors are finding new ways to get to your inbox and your desktop.

One increasingly popular tactic: Spamming people via their own friends.

The practice started out innocently enough. Facebook members could use a service called "Friend Finder" to bring others into their networks. By simply plugging in a username and password for popular e-mail providers like Gmail or Hotmail, Facebook users could leverage their address books to broadcast their membership, connect with friends -- and help build Facebook's population of registered users.

Granted, Facebook did not start this practice, but the company certainly popularized it. Social networking sites have latched on, and now everyone from MySpace to Ning to Bebo is using the tactic to bulk up membership.

And it doesn't stop with social networking sites. Last month, a job-focused startup called NotchUp was featured in Techcrunch. What the company does isn't nearly as interesting as its marketing strategy. When joining, users can plug in their LinkedIn contacts to help promote the site. If friends sign up, a referral fee is awarded for any transaction that takes place for a full year. The site broke down on the first day, which is testament to the effectiveness of the strategy.

Therein lies a quandary for companies that need to reach out to consumers. For those looking to generate buzz, bulk up their own databases, and boost revenue through viral marketing, the NotchUp approach is hard to pass up. This option becomes imperative when the competition starts doing it. For very little cost, it's possible to quickly obtain a critical mass of users. In fact, it may be the fastest, most cost-effective marketing tactic ever invented.

This comes with a price, however: Being branded a spammer. NotchUp has been subjected to withering criticism. Valleywag's Nicholas Carlson blasted the startup in "Dear NotchUp: Please stop spamming me," saying "There's nothing stealth about NotchUp's spammy membership drive. I've got five emails in my personal inbox to prove it."

Nevertheless, we are bound to see more startups employ this tactic in the future. The PR hit is bad, but the potential membership boost is simply too good to pass up.

As for Facebook, the giant social network is thriving, thanks in large part to its move to open up its platform to third-party applications. Without the Facebook platform, civilization wouldn't have Scrabulous and flying sheep. However, friend spam is pervasive, as noted in a recent Techcrunch post:

"Facebook announced a number of steps today to battle the growing problem of application spam -- stuff that is sent from your Facebook friends asking you to try out new services. Generally, applications force users to send these invitations in order to get access to the more interesting features.

The result can be dozens or hundreds of messages a day asking you to join some service that you really don't want to join. And if you do join it, you make the whole spam cycle continue."

Facebook, to its credit, is taking steps to reduce this practice. However, the company still generates its own brand of friend spam via the Friend Finder app. I suppose their spam is better for you than that created by other developers.

This new breed of spam is enough to make one yearn for the good 'ol days of traditional e-mail spam, when spammers came a-knockin' with unusual names like