The September 2008 Cocktail Talk was about Social Networking and discussed MyFace, aka: MySpace & Facebook and Linkedin. LinkedIn was the Social Networking tool of choice.

Since then MySpace seems to have gone the way of the rotary phone. LinkedIn is still growing and going strong even though it seems they haven't put a nickle into it in years.

Fortune Magazine's April 12 issue has an article about LinkedIn calling it "Facebook for Grownups". But, they may have waited too long to publish that. Facebook knows what it is and it is a business and it wants LinkedIn to go the way of MySpace. FB is making strides toward that, and while it is its members are becoming grownups.This March, after a harsh email from an anonymous reader, code name "Fish Lady", we decided to check in on Facebook and see what they're doing to make LinkedIn join MySpace.

I already had a Facebook (FB) account so I could access my Niece Roxanne's pictures of her kids. It had some basic information and I had two "Friends". Roxanne and Roxanne.

Completed with a real email address, age, and recent photo, I was ready to go.

I went with a Passport type photo. Head and shoulders, collared shirt, plain background, a vacation photo. Photoshop only removed the family. I am, like, soooo L7. You're supposed to lock yourself in the bathroom and take a picture of yourself with your cell phone. A wet, dirty towel, and wall tile for your background. Head and shoulders and without clothing, clothing dates the picture. Besides, holding your cell phone at arm's length is the best way to make your nose look really big.

With just the Roxannes, Friends were next on the list. You can search High School, College, even work.

High School? The same people whose lives ended Graduation Day are still trying to hold court 40 years later. Laugh until you cry. College? A few. Forgiveness comes quick when you see Daddy hugging his kids. Now we're up to six Friends.

Work, the best and brightest from all over the world, somethng to look forward to. Except, my colleagues were nowhere to be found. I only worked for three companies before going Indie and that was 20 years ago. Unless someone's a Lifer they're not going to list jobs they had 20 years ago. The FB generation working where I worked is 1/2 my age. Maybe I worked with their parents.

LinkedIn had a bunch of hits from Outlook and hopefully FB would too. Seven hundred and eleven email addresses in Contacts. One hundred three were on FB. From there it was like seating a wedding reception. Who can be together, who can't, who do you leave out who do you let in. People accepted, I had Friends.

So now we have to do Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon. I found my Brother, through a girl that I married who is Friends with his Wife's, Son's, Wife. He accepted my Invitation. We haven't FB'd. He lives 4.5 miles away and I haven't even seen him in 4.5 years. Which is about how old his picture is. I should call him.

Invites came from unexpected sources. Rejection hurts. I know. If you got rejected it was probably your decision concerning your picture. Your dog licking your face, or you licking your dog's face, or your dog, or you, licking the dog's anywhere else, will get you dinged. A full length picture of a trout you just caught, will get you dinged. Craig Phillips #697, the one in the blue skirt and pink tube-top, should get dinged.

I wanted to start a group called "People named Craig Phillips" and invite them all. Until I searched and looked at them. What a bunch of whack-jobs. Then again, who am I to judge. Cocktail Talk

I looked up other names too. In 2008 I looked up my Niece Roxanne so I could connect and see the pictures of her kids. She is not the only Roxanne in the world and boy was I in for a suprise. This is not my Niece Roxanne. This is not a passport type photo. Then again, who was I to judge. A Friend is a Friend.

With Friends in place I posted pictures and made a few comments. Ding, ding-ding, a-ding, ding, email alerts out the wazoo, chat window popping open, busy as a Russian Hooker on Dollar Night.

Vetting seems to be a problem. You let somebody into the party, things are good, and all of a sudden, bang, their loser weasel friends pop up. You aren't going to vet all somebody's 600 Friends before accepting, so it happens. Sometimes you're known by the company you keep. "Un-Friend". With 600 other Friends they won't even notice you're gone.

To this point FB seemed casually personal, light-hearted, trivial. A picture of a fish, the grandkids, your dog. I liked Privacy Control. Gradient levels of who can see and do what. Its comfortable. Privacy Control extends to Goups and Pages too.

You can make an Open Group that everyone can see and join, a Closed Group you can see but need permission to join, or one that you can't see or join unless asked. A Secret Group. I liked that one alot for me and the other 707 whack-job Craig Phillips'. Maybe even for professional use.

Groups include, or exclude, people. No different than a Cocktail Party where the people of like interests gather in little groups throughout the evening. Clubs, Boards, Committees could all benefit from the use of FB Groups. Open 24 hours, history is maintained, people police themselves, no meetings to schedule, no agenda to write, no time constraints.

However, when the group doesn't buy into it you've wasted your time, or worse increased the amount of time wasted. Printing an on-line dialogue and xeroxing it for the people in it to use at a meeting is not an effective use of Groups. LinkedIn Groups generate alot of membership requests but don't drive alot of discussion. I've got a group with 185 members and live monthly meetings and nobody promotes anything online. No discussions at all. FB? You can't stop them. People will announce each time they go "check their make-up".

Pages are neat too. Very different than websites. You have to promote your website, drive people to it. FB Pages are more viral in nature. Everything anybody does to it gets broadcast to everybody following. Privacy Control lets you determine who can add pictures, video, events and more so you can customize to your needs. Members seem to drive membership.

One last thing about Privacy Control. That girl I married, Nancy, actually put on her FB that she is married to me. FB emailed me and asked me to "Confirm" our relationship. So we confirmed our vows right there in the office in the eyes of Facebook. The eyes of the entire FB Planet too, apparently. Because we heard about it from all over the place.

Who would have thought the Facebook Experiment would lead to the Confirmation of our Wedding Vows. What's next? Maybe you just tell FB you're in a relationship and find out if the other person agrees. Maybe this is how marriage proposals will be made in the future.

My Friend Requests will spike with people looking for Roxanne and Russian Hookers, or not, that's your call, and that's Cocktail Talk.