I think I understand what they are trying to do, & it is not all that bad. The implementation is just a bit sleazy. For social networks (especially upstart litt

I think I understand what they are trying to do, & it is not all that bad. The implementation is just a bit sleazy. For social networks (especially upstart little ones), one of the best traffic sources will probably be your members getting Googled. If you are active on half a dozen sites & you Google your name, Facebook doesn't tend to do too well. Apart from that there is also chatter of various sorts that may drive some search engine traffic & perhaps some Twitter-like real time stuff. It must be frustrating that with all the long tail relevance of the site, they are letting all this traffic go by. But I think Jason is right, this is sleazy.