If you're like me (that is to say, a quasi-connected person in Silicon Valley) you may have noticed a surge in invitations to the professional social networks du jour (LinkedIn, Facebook*, Plaxo). It's well established that a slight surge in new user signups in these services can result in a quick 'bloom' of contact requests, as new users induce other new users to sign up and so forth.

My theory is that this week's rumor of impending Yahoo! layoffs has resulted in a smattering of Yahoos signing up or fleshing out their networks, cascading in to a general surge of activity.

What do you think?