November 7, 2007
Facebook Ads - opt out not an option
Mark Zuckerberg was in rare form today as revealed the "social ads" that form the core of Facebook’s long-awaited new advertising technology. Not only did the young Facebook founder wear a rather dapper pair of closed-toed leather shoes in place of his trademark Adidas sandals, he also turned uncharacteristically emotional as he displayed Facebook’s new ads to the assembled audience of advertising and marketing execs.
In a move out of the Steve Jobs playbook, the 23 year-old internet mogul said the ads, which companies will pay to have appear on users’ Facebook pages, were beautiful and made him very happy. But will Facebook’s users feel the same?
For the time being, Facebook users will not be able to opt out of receiving social ads, which will appear on users’ profiles when they post photos, write reviews or do other things on special Facebook pages designed by their favourite brands.
Zuckerberg indicated yesterday that he might consider an opt-out system for social ads, if users demanded it. Until then, the default will be for users to participate in Facebook’s money-making gambit.
That really might backfire when people go tot he Verizon page and write “Verizon sucks” and it enters thier feed for all to see. I imagine some of the less popular brands may want to think twice about creating pages.
Posted by: Evorgleb | November 7th, 2007 at 4:33 am | Report this commentI’m wondering what will be the conditions imposed on consumers who purchase Google’s future Gphone. Will subscribers be able to block in-coming advertisements? Certainly, Google, along with its partners, will expect some revenue source for their efforts. The NewsVisual article on Google’s Open Handset Alliance http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/11/google-and-moto.html implies that it’s really personal connections among business leaders that determine future success in the competitive marketplace.
Posted by: Linda Low | November 7th, 2007 at 9:28 pm | Report this commentI am amazed at the valuations FaceBook, YouTube and some of the other static and antiquated social networking sites have these days. I am not sure how long they can support these valuations without launching advertising space and even going mobile.
Posted by: Roy Shelton | November 8th, 2007 at 6:25 am | Report this commentI feel the real value to the user is in really understanding and leveraging the value of a social network and making the user experience more meaningful. I mean what is the point in having a common interest with somebody who is 1000s of miles away?
I can across a site the other day which uses BlueTooth matching for mobile social networking and video streaming. Seems a much better approach than having to log back on to the static sites. Check www.next2friends.com
Doesn’t anyone remember 2000? Sites such as Facebook and MySpace are great ideas but aren’t worth the value for their money. The entire revenue model is based on advertising (like every other now defunct company of the original bubble). Sounds like someone is getting taken to the cleaners.
Posted by: Bryan Goski | November 9th, 2007 at 11:24 pm | Report this comment