Why Facebook is going to suck out

[Sal Atticum]

This really makes me want to take down most of my information.  Facebook is becoming MySpace with better formatting (but only just).

Come on, Zuckerberg.  You used to be a good person.  Now you're only in it for the $$$.

November 7, 2007
Advertising
Facebook Is Marketing Your Brand Preferences (With Your Permission)
By LOUISE STORY

FACEBOOK wants to put your face on advertisements for products that you like.

Facebook .com is a social networking site that lets people accumulate “friends” and share preferences and play games with them. Each member creates a home page where he or she can post photographs, likes and dislikes and updates about their activities.

Yesterday, in a twist on word-of-mouth marketing, Facebook began selling ads that display people’s profile photos next to commercial messages that are shown to their friends about items they purchased or registered an opinion about.

For example, going forward, a Facebook user who rents a movie on Blockbuster.com will be asked if he would like to have his movie choice broadcast out to all his friends on Facebook. And those friends would have no choice but to receive that movie message, along with an ad from Blockbuster.

Facebook says that many of its 50 million active users already tell friends about particular products or brands they like, and the only change will be that those communications might start to carry ad messages from the companies that sell them. Facebook is letting advertisers set up their own profile pages at no charge and encouraging companies like Blockbuster, Condé Nast and Coca-Cola to share information with Facebook about the actions of Facebook members on their sites.

As eager as advertisers are to tap into the rich trove of information that people freely offer about themselves on sites like Facebook and MySpace.com, there are nevertheless growing concerns about the privacy issues raised by such tactics. Facebook’s announcement yesterday came just a few days after a Federal Trade Commission hearing in Washington about online privacy and customized ads. The F.T.C. expressed concern that advertisers may have access to too much information about people’s online activities.

Facebook says it is using only information that its members choose to share. And, while the site is using the information on behalf of advertisers, Facebook is not giving it to marketers, said Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer.

Facebook’s much-anticipated plan — which the company calls “social advertising” — was revealed yesterday at a gathering of advertising executives and reporters in New York. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, spoke in grand terms about of the death of mass advertising and said that in the future, ad messages would increasingly be conveyed from friend to friend through online networks.

“Nothing influences a person more than a recommendation from a trusted friend,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

Facebook users will not be able to avoid these personally recommended ads if they are friends with participating people. Participation can involve joining a fan club for a brand, recommending a product or sharing information about their purchases from external Web sites.

Mr. Zuckerberg said he thought this system would make the site feel “less commercial,” because the marketing messages will be accompanied by comments from friends. When asked about people who might not like ads, Mr. Zuckerberg shrugged and said, “I mean, it’s an ad-supported business.”

•

While Facebook executives said that the ads would feel more like content because they would be yoked to a friend’s comments, some analysts said the approach could backfire.

“Just because you like Reebok doesn’t mean I am going to like Reebok,” said Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

Facebook has 60 advertisers already signed up as partners, and last night 100,000 new profiles were added to the site to promote products, bands and other interests. Condé Nast will ask visitors to its Flip.com and Epicurious.com sites if they would like to send information back to Facebook, and will later expand the option to its other sites.

•

The New York Times Company will also allow visitors to its newspaper Web sites to zap information about their visits to those sites back to friends on Facebook.

Executives from consumer brand companies attending the announcement said they viewed ads on social networking sites as a priority in their ad spending. At Facebook, “the numbers speak for themselves — their numbers are staggering,” said Babs Rangaiah, Unilever’s director for media and entertainment.

Mr. Zuckerberg said that Facebook had discussed the new program with Microsoft before signing a $240 million deal that allowed Microsoft to sell display ads on its site. The new breed of recommendation-related ads are not a part of that deal, he said.

Facebook’s program will compete with MySpace for advertisers’ dollars. MySpace, which is owned by the News Corporation, said Monday that it was trying to expand its ad targeting system to local advertisers. MySpace and Facebook scan their members’ pages to try to figure out what sort of ads the people who posted them might be interested in.

“On Facebook, we know exactly what gender someone is and exactly what age they are,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

Some privacy experts applauded Facebook for letting people choose whether or not to make product recommendations. But they also expressed concern that Facebook might one day change its policy of not sharing data with marketers.

“That’s been one of the historical problems in this field — the shifting promises,” said Chris Hoofnagle, a senior lawyer at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the University of California in Berkeley.


Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

[red hibiscus]

This is bull crap... But it doesn't really surprise me too much. It seems like things head south when something gets too popular.

[Sal Atticum]

oooo!  Interesting article (idea from MinBorg).  As she says

Given that you can't prove who put those pictures up, who labelled them, and the fact that the assumption is made this is only open to those in facebook, or those looking at an open facebook account, can this paper print those pictures with their full names and not blurring the faces?

The ladettes who glorify their shameful drunken antics on Facebook
By ANDREW LEVY

Drunkenly dancing on tables or collapsing in the street used to be a source of acute embarrassment for young women the morning after the night before.

Today, they are more likely to boast about it - to the world, with pictures - on social networking sites.

* The ladette effect puts 40% more children in rehab for alcohol abuse

More than 150,000 girls have signed up to Facebook's online forum "30 Reasons Girls Should Call It A Night", where they openly discuss the various states of inebriation - and undress - they have found themselves in.

Among those included in nearly 5,000 images which have been posted on the website is young blonde Jennifer Rentfrow, who was caught kneeling over a toilet after a night out.

Other images show friends Claire Munday and Zoe Bates sleeping on a dancefloor, while Ashley Spellmeyer is shown sleeping in the bath.

Other young women can be seen being sick on themselves, falling into bushes, answering a call of nature in public or inadvertently exposing themselves.

The site is named after 30 tell-tale signs that it is time to go home.

These include having no idea where your friends are, slurring your words so badly no one can understand what you are saying, having make-up "smeared all over your face" and passing out.

A topic group on the website entitled "Funniest/Stupidest s*** you did while drunk" allows members to post details of their binge-drinking antics.

Katie O'Connor, from Manchester, wrote: "A few days ago on a birthday night out I was absolutely ratted - and upon entering an 80's club, offered to flash the DJ my left b*** if he'd play 'Never gonna give you up'."

Lindsay Gordon, a student at Canterbury Christ Church University, wrote: "Pole dancing on lamp posts is always a good laugh." A recent Government-commissioned study found one in five 15-year-olds now drinks the equivalent of almost a bottle of wine a week.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics last month revealed twice as many young women are dying from alcohol abuse as 15 years ago.

An increasing number of young people are now being diagnosed with life-threatening conditions such as cirrhosis of the liver.

Experts fear the toll will continue to rise following Labour's introduction of round-the-clock drinking.

Alcohol Concern yesterday warned the Facebook site was "symptomatic of the culture of acceptability around drunkenness".

Spokesman Frank Soodeen added: "There are the obvious mishaps young people get into but this doesn't act as a disincentive because it provides excellent material for anecdotes.

"People are perfectly happy to post these sorts of pictures because they recognise that alcohol-related embarrassment will actually improve their social standing."

Link

[pmp6nl]

Stupid facebook.  Like facebook isnt already making enough money.

Will blocking cookies help any with the advertising bs?

[Sal Atticum]

I doubt it--all your info is in the database, and I don't think you can login without cookies, so it knows who you are and what your information is--and therefore what to show you about your friends.

Right now it's that idiotic movie quiz.  I don't really care who knows more about movies!

[pmp6nl]

I was wondering if they had a tracking cookie whereas if you went to specific sites it would keep track or something?  (I dont know the full capabilities of cookies.)

[JakeJZG]

Meh.  Facebook will bne there until we all in some manner move to the next clusterfuck.  Then it begins again.

Just remove all the apps and most of your information and use it as a contact book. 

[pmp6nl]

Maybe I will do a bit of research as to what they are actually taking.. I believe a lot of it has to do with apps.