Being ever wary of social networking and contact management sytems that run on the web, I have always stuck to the desktop. The fear is that after inputing all my contacts, somehow, someway (and without my knowledge), all the email addresses will wind up getting some kind of promotional message that will piss off my friends and colleagues. I hope others share my penchant for being anti-social, as if you only have three friends and two colleagues like I do, you can’t afford any bad blood.

But for those Windows/Outlook Express/MSN Explorer users who don’t care much about what I am saying, they now have a chance to foul up their relationships, and maybe even inadvertently acquire a new email address to boot.

I can’t test Woody’s conclusions on the messed up functions in MSN Explorer Beta 2, as I don’t own a Windows machine. But it sounds like unsolicited viral marketing at its finest.