Valuing Spontaneity

I was surprised a while back by getting a number of birthday wishes in a social networking package from people whose names I did not immediately recognize. I quickly realized that the package allows you to automate the greetings. So how heart-felt are those wishes? In The Noisy Channel by Daniel Tunkelang he discusses: Is Spontaneity overrated? how much we now value such wishes now that we know they are not spontaneous, and should we care? How does this then relate to product and service reviews. When I look at a set of reviews I am always suspicious of where they come from and if they are mostly from friends of the venues. The level of that suspicion increases depending upon the cost of the potential transaction, in time or money. Despite being analytical its usually not calculating a potential value, but rather a feeling for its value. The post goes on to look at aggregated reviews, if all buzz is good buzz, and thoughts about soliciting reviews. Good piece.