Facebook Plans To Show Ads On Websites 78
An anonymous reader writes "Facebook is planning to compete directly with Google by working on an update for its ad platform. Facebook will be offering webmasters to place facebook ads on their websites."
Good (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Good (Score:5, Interesting)
I think that's a normal life-cycle.
Have a good idea, promote it, get popular, get ingrained with your users, cash in, cash out, die. Seems to work.
Re:Good (Score:4, Funny)
I think that's a normal life-cycle.
Have a good idea, promote it, get popular, get ingrained with your users, cash in, cash out, die. Seems to work.
Can't see why not. That's Myspace for you.
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Forgot the last step "sell off company to NewsCorp".
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Well, it sure worked great for AOL and MySpace.
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Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
For those of us who desire organizing groups of people online - Facebook is pretty much the only option.
I wonder how they did it before Facebook?
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I had a similar thing to the calls about not having activated onstar in my car i bought used. But what if you are in an accident and can't call for help? I either get outside help or i die. The person on the other end of the phone let out a gasp. Somehow unable to comprehend not spending money to get onstar setup/monthly fees. I also had a revelation that just because i have a phone with me all the time doesn't mean you can get a hold of me at any second either. Kinda strange stuff these days apparent
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I wonder how they did it before Facebook?
That's missing the point. What they're saying is that people they're trying to invite now only use Facebook. And don't necessarily respond to other options. I'm sure you could call every single person (if you even have their number since some people don't bother sharing that as much these days) but even then the people aren't getting Facebook reminders so they might not remember it.
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They didn't. It was total anarchy and chaos, and two world wars. Facebook moved the doomsday clock back a whole hour..
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It is an unfortunate truth that in this day and age, many events "exist" entirely on facebook. If you didn't get the facebook invite, you may never even know that the event took place until the photos are uploaded on facebook the next morning...
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Maybe it will die as a product and I can go back to using something better for organising events with people. One large message box sure is fun.
Why would it die? To the contrary, even if I dislike ads as anyone else, I have to admit that a hundred million-large social networking backing an ad platform seems like a powerful weapon against AdWords. And if successful, it'll do the opposite of killing it, with even more company acquisitions, etc.
Here it comes (Score:3, Insightful)
The complete monetization of your information. Utilizing cookies and IP addresses obtained via the millions of facebook "like" buttons, cross-referenced with your own postings and the postings of your friends and family; Facebook will deliver advertisements using anyone's likeness on every webpage who subscribes to their service.
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Yeah, its about time Google had some competition in that area. :-p
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Google is a lot more clear about what they are doing, you know they are an ad platform and you knew they were BEFORE you gave them any info. Some people trusted Facebook more specifically because they weren't doing this. Now Facebook is basically taking a back door, it'll probably be opt out so millions won't even know they data they post on Facebook is being used to target ads OUTSIDE of Facebook. Facebook is desperate, they have no real ability to make money other than to sell your personal info and th
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Some people trusted Facebook more specifically because they weren't doing this.
Uh, what? Even my mother - who barely qualifies as computer literate - knows that Facebook is a platform for harvesting personal information and selling it to the highest bidder and expresses surprise that anyone is stupid enough have an account. And, no, I didn't tell her this, she learned it from newspaper, radio and TV news. Oh, and from remembering TANSTAAFL. Anyone who joined Facebook without being aware of this was practicing wilful self deception.
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My point was that Facebook used to sell that info to be used in targeted ads on Facebook's site, not for anywhere on the web you might visit. I also disagree with you that people know what Facebook is doing with your data, I'd actually argue that the vast majority don't know. Folks who I've had conversations with about what Facebook uses your data for were usually surprised. Your mom is the exception rather than the rule, most people in the US at least don't read a newspaper and don't hear/see radio and
Ok so rumor. Details are where? (Score:5, Insightful)
From the blog post:
Basically there is nothing to see here so you can move on now. But! If you want to join the rumor mill here we go:
1. Are the payouts going to be competitive with AdSense's? I make more than enough yearly via AdSense to get taxed on the income. Will it be worth it for me to add Facebook too?
2. Will Facebook (or conversely Google) allow me to run both AdSense and FBAds concurrently or will I have to pick one or the other (see #1).
3. Are general users visiting my website more likely to click FBAds than AdSense? Will they be textual and thus fit into my content better or will we be looking at a lot of images/Flash?
So many questions and no answers in the linked content. Boo.
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From the blog post:
Precisely the problem I had when implementing Yahoo's contextual ads back in 2005. Google did now allow them to be shown on the same page, so I ended up doing an A/B test for half the site to see how they would compare.
Yahoo repeatedly failed to provide ads that were actually relevant to my site, which resulted in low low clicks, and in turn, very low return. I quickly returned to Adsense.
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Are general users visiting my website more likely to click FBAds than AdSense? Will they be textual and thus fit into my content better or will we be looking at a lot of images/Flash?
This is just speculation, but Facebook's ads would most likely be base the off the user's profile information.
Facebook has a competitive advantage over Google when it comes to targeting advertising based on the demographic of the users. Google's algorithm's give it a competitive advantage when it comes to targeting ads based on the content of websites.
Which method works best for generating the most revenue is still up to debate.
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I suspect both methods will work well depending on the situation. On very subject specific sites Google's methods will probably work best. IE Adsens adds on the AROC home page will probably generate more clicks offering links to after market Italian car parts than Facebook ads pushing sexy singles in my neighborhood, will. Facebook will likely find more success on more general news/entertainment sites people just sort of browse not looking for anything specific like this one.
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One of the big questions:
Will FB actively monitor ads going through their ad network so holes in Flash and other add-ons are not exploited by malware writers? I doubt it. It would be nice if they went the AdSense route because it is almost impossible for a malware writer to propagate malicious code via Google's mechanisms.
Ads are the #1 route that PCs get infected these days in my personal experience. It would be nice if FB would act in the interest in the whole PC ecosystem and at least check ads for ba
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Let me guess... (Score:3)
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Just another step (Score:1)
Just another step in the process of the internet slowly becoming facebook. First there was "like" everywhere, now facebook ads. Oh joy.
Oh, Great (Score:1)
Re:If this gets some decent traction (Score:2)
Obligatory!
"Don't you know who I am? I'm the Zuckernaut, bitch!"
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Competition is good but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Lesson is, don't promise something you can't deliver, or are planning to deliver at a later date. Odds are, publishers will return to the "tried and true" and never look back.
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... will it work? Yahoo! tried this back in 2005 [webpronews.com] and it failed miserably. Too much promised up front with too little returned. Publishers dropped it like a potato before Yahoo! could improve the contextual workings to increase the CTR. I know because I tried it, and quickly discarded it.
Lesson is, don't promise something you can't deliver, or are planning to deliver at a later date. Odds are, publishers will return to the "tried and true" and never look back.
Yahoo's problem is the glut of ads in everything. I hated it so much I left Yahoo and all their groups and stuff behind. Perhaps if they weren't so intent on cramming ads in like crazy they might succeed with only a few here and there and ditch the *&$%@ flash ads. God, how I HATE flash ads.
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WTF (Score:1, Interesting)
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it is just a rumor, and i think if it gonna happen it will be the death of facebook.
then how can we most efficiently encourage it?
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I think you're crazy if you think this will kill facebook. I am not sure how it would even dent it.
Will it get past AdBlock Plus? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'm go even one step further and block them in /etc/hosts . I don't trust a single hair on Zuckerberg's head.
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Do you mean SiteBlock for Chrome or BlockSite for Firefox, or something different altogether?
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You forget that AdBlock only has a marginal rate of use among common users.
That being said, this platform will have its inherent limitations. Chief among them the fact that you can only advertise to FB users and second due to the fact that the landing page must be developed on a FB page. The first is not really a problem (the user base is huge), but with the second you can expect a lower conversion rate than with Google because the users will have to go through one additional hop and the exit points abound.
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They may be indistinguishable from user updates.
Bob: I love cheese.
Tide Ultra: Now with new scent!
Bill: My dog is eating its own feces! [picture] [+18 Liked this]
Tim: I became one of the unemployed today... Huge layoffs. [+2 Liked this]
They are giving away free webmasters!? (Score:2)
What does this mean (from the article summary):
Facebook will be offering webmasters to place facebook ads on their websites."
Facebook is offering everyone free webmasters?
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I think a wonderful whitehat hack would be to get every Firefox/Chome install to have adblock installed and set to block FB ads. If IE has ad block then include that one as well.
Most consumers are not aware of plugins like adblock(+) et al. Having the tech community get all uppy with "I'm done with FB' wont even register with FB since the bulk of users, at this point, are not tech savvy. Blanket block ads from a hack...people wont know the difference, maybe even be thankful that they are free of ads, and
A tangible advantage (Score:2)
They do, at least, have a genuine advantage here because they already know what you are interested in.
If you list your hobbies as action movies, rock concerts and computer books then you can expect to see adverts for Netflix, Ticketmaster and Waterstones etc.
Business-wise, it's a brilliant idea and if I ran a business I would be all over this.
But it's slightly creepy, I find.
I'll be opting out or outright blocking Facebook (yes, you can bet money on it being opt-out only).
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Not always, I'm betting that the majority of searches are actually performed while at work.
No doubt they are relevant to your profession, but how many are in a shopping mood while Googling for "Outlook error E3298112"?
Can't wait (Score:2)
... to see which of my friends gets the Fleshlight ad placed on their profile pages!
Oh great... (Score:1)
Death of the Internet (Score:1)
My Friends as Ads (Score:2)
I can see this coming. Pictures of my Friends will appear on websites pushing products or even the services of that website. Welcome to Best Buy Sherri, your Friend Jane was just here and bought Harry Potter on BluRay! [like].
Ug.
Log out immediately after doing anything on any site.
The last thing I want to see (Score:1)
Love my adblockers (Score:1)
If it's anything like the ads on FB it'll suck (Score:2)