Jon, your running "Me Real Time" is extremely distracting. It kept changing while I was trying to read your post, and my eyes would involuntarily shift for a moment. It's frustrating.<p>I didn't realize I could click to pause it until just now when I went to find out its title - I was trying so hard <i>not</i> to read it! But it's also not a good idea to require your site's readers to click something so they can focus on your posts.
I also find it difficult when sites like LinkedIn or Facebook want you to categorize your relationship, especially when that relationship is in its infancy. It seems a bit presumptuous to say "I've done business with X" when I just met them, even in a business context.<p>I think it would be interesting if social sites and social graphs let you somehow define the quality of the relationship (each side could rate it and neither could see the other's rating). I'd like to see my strongest links to other people - even if it's not necessarily the shortest path.
In my experience, most people speak of acquaintances as such, like "I know a guy..." or "I worked with a guy...". Maybe I'm just not rich enough to have associates who try to impress by name-dropping.
The tendency towards inflated-familiarity varies by region and industry. I think LA/entertainment led the way, but online social networks are bringing the same friend-inflation worldwide.