Will you add a brand as a Facebook friend?
Mark Zuckerberg and the gang at Facebook have finally decided to release the hounds on advertising within their massively popular social networking site. Are you going to play ball?
Mark Zuckerberg and the gang at Facebook have finally decided to release the hounds on advertising within their massively popular social networking site. Are you going to play ball?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or, heaven forbid, you don’t pay as close attention to the ever-changing world of online media as we do, you’ve probably heard the two recent announcements concerning Facebook:
First, Microsoft has bought a stake in Facebook’s operation: 1.6% for US$240 million. This investment values Facebook at an astonishing $15 billion. This is a huge coup for 23-year old Zuckerberg who reportedly turned down prior investment offers from the likes of Google and others. Looks like he was right to have done so.
Second, and very closely tied to the first announcement, Facebook has launched a new advertising opportunity on its service called Social Ads which will allow companies to build profiles known as Facebook Pages and have those profiles associated with Facebook members who choose to allow it. The New York Times published a story yesterday questioning the legality of the advertising, and it seems that the user backlash has already begun.
According to Facebook’s corporate blog,
- [users] now have a way to connect with products, businesses, bands, celebrities and more on Facebook.
- Ads should be getting more relevant and more meaningful
- [users] now have the option to share actions [they] take on other sites with [their] friends on Facebook
That last point is both fascinating and frightening at the same time. It’s not unusual for websites to deliver ads based on what’s known as "behavioural targeting". Basically sites that do this analyze which pages of their site the user has been surfing and tries to make each subsequent ad the user sees more and more relevant.
Facebook’s model takes the notion of behavioural targeting a step further by analyzing and associating ads based on surfing, and perhaps more importantly, buying patterns outside of Facebook’s own pages.
This brings us to the question du jour… what do you think of Facebook’s new twist on web ads? Will you "connect" with products or services and let others know what you’re buying elsewhere? How do you feel about your passions and interests being the basis for ads that your friends see when they interact with you on Facebook?
Filed Under: Found on the Web > In The News > News > Web/Tech > Weblogs
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wrew
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Now who didn't expect this to happen ? This is exactly what happen's when a site put's money before people , and dosn't give a crap what happen's because they believe they are to big and people have no other choice but to accept it. Reminds you of a perticular time dosen't it dose 1941 give you any idea beause that is what those "perticular " people from that " perticular " time did ,hmmm is the human race avanceing or just finding new ways to screw it's self just like always !
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I think I am just about ready to go and de-activate my facebook account!!!!!
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If I want to watch ads I would watch tv. Good thing is I do not watch tv because of unprovable stupid ads on tv. Nobody can prove their product is the best, but they all say it. Someone should make each company prove each ad is 100% true before it is released.
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Facebook seems to be getting a little too full of themselves. They seem to believe that they are forever and that they are an essential web service. Really, they are not. It's just a distraction.
Eventually they will fade into the relative cyber oblivion that ICQ and mIRC did. Yes, people still use them, but not the general internet public.
The next fade is coming and people will eventually get sick and tired of the rampant commercialism and leave.
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stop whining. if you dont like it, de-activate your account like i did. even before i read this article.
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I also de-activated mine. It will become a garbage site.
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first to jeff if you got nothing but notfications and wall posts that was your friends not facebook its self and to the rest of you yes it might be just a fad but the advertisements are no where near that bad you get worse ones from pop up and other sites its not like facebook is the only site with ads
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Are you kidding me, people? You're worried about ads? Get over it…there isn't a single place on the net you can go without advertising of some sort, especially if you're receiving a FREE service. Did you forget about that? That it's FREE? Geez. And as to the person who commented about them putting money before people…you did see the figure that microsoft offered for a mere 1.6%, didn't you? Just in case you missed it, the figure was 240 MILLION. Are you going to tell me that you'd turn that one down? Some of you people need to give your heads a shake. I'll continue to use facebook, and like any other sensible person, I'll ignore advertising the same way I do on every other site.
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there are ads on facebook?
I use firefox with the adblock plus extension with the easylist filter.
No ads at all, the internet MY way.
there's also an anti tracking cookie filter as well for adblock plus.
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I too will not be staying with Facebook if the ads get too bad. That one comment was right on. If I don't watch as much TV because of the ads why would I stay with a website that has advertising. One of the best things about the internet is that if you block pop ups & you have a good security program you don't get as much advertising. If Facebook's advertising gets too annoying I will close my account, the same as I have other programs like yes, ICQ & a few others. I just don't go there at all. Soon someone will set up another website program that will catch everyone's fancy & Facebook will be forgotten.
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This site was amazing before the applications and when it was for college and university students. Now its become a copy of myspace. Now with the ads an everything else… its going downhill fast.
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Please keep the beauty of facebook — simplicity.
The applications were decorations.
But advertisements, they are purely purely annoying obstructions!
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Will Facebook pay users for the ads they display on their profile????
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Will Facebook pay users for the ads they display on their profile????
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If the ads get annoying, I'm outta there. But the point someone made about Facebook being "free" is well taken. How else does a website support itself. The key here is to make sure the ads are in good taste & unobtrusive. Once they get in my face, I'll be gone.
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To Matt: Dont you see, that is also the appeal. THere weren't any ads on facebook, at least when I was on. It was a place to chat with new friends or keep in contact with old ones. No nonsense. But now it's sold its people/users out, as everyone or everything these days seems to be doing. I don't really care anyways. People seem to use that site because they want people to know what they are doing all the time, or what they have done. They will post pictures of themselves in clubs to show that they are hip with it, or something else like that. People want other people to know about them, they want people to care about what they do. That's what facebook does, it brings out the narcissist in everyone.
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Free? that site isn't free people. They are selling your information. Notice those polls about which energy drink was your favourite? As if they care. There is also something that you can check off in your account options or somewhere like that in which facebook asks you if you would like your information not to be shared or something like that. You can check for yourselves. SO it's not entirely free… When are we going to get sick of being sold out?
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Here comes the end of facebook…….simple.
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