With apologies to John “Bluto” Blutarsky, “AIM Fight!”

What the heck is “AIM Fight?” Aunty can already hear her readers scratching their collective heads.

Well, you know all of those 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon friend-of-a-friend sites that have become so popular (or reviled, depending on where you stand) over the years? Like Linked-In, Grokster, and Friendster? (Need I go on?)

Well, it turns out that the best metric of your linked-in-ness, your popularity, your cool, is none of those artificially created networks, but the one that has been right under our noses for the past several years: the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) network.

The concept behind AIM Fight, which was created by, according to AOL’s AIM Fight site, “two AIM programmers with a little bit too much free time on their hands,” is simple: the more people who list you in their buddy list, the higher your…

[Continue Reading Ready, AIM, Fight! Or It's Not Who You Know, It's Who Has You In Their Buddy List]