Facebook Beacon advertisements track user activity on the Web and alert your Facebook friends when you buy something on a Facebook advertiser's website. MoveOn.org, which won't stop moaning about privacy concerns, tells us Facebook deliberately made opting out of Facebook Beacon as difficult as possible for its users. Here's a video the activist group put together to demonstrate.
The exodus at Yahoo continues. Cameron Marlow, a leading light of Yahoo Research, has left its Berkeley building, as we noted — but we can now reveal his destination: Facebook. That Yahoo tried to acquire the social network last year for a fraction of its current $15 billion price just makes his departure more bitter. Marlow, you see, had developed one of the most intriguing social networks at Yahoo — Tagsona, an internal tool for finding coworkers at Yahoo working on similar projects. Tagsona has already inspired social features in Yahoo products — but, alas, its inventor will be cooking up new ideas at Facebook, not Yahoo.
Since we first covered an eBay auction for a Facebook application on September 27 when Michael Zhang auctioned off LogBook for $2,550, the going price for useless applications has boomed nearly 280 percent, to judge by a similar sale yesterday. Then again, the I Am Hungry application sold for an even bubblier $20,100 in October. No wonder Facebook apologists more juiced?
For now, Facebook only allows users to opt out of its Beacon ads, which target your friends based on what you do on other websites, on a site-by-site basis. But MoveOn.org, the activist group protesting Beacon over privacy concerns, says it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, the organization told News.com, screenshots leaked prior to Beacon's launch indicate that a systemwide opt-out was once intended as an option for users. Facebook only later decided to remove this option, it seems. Here's the evidence.
Explaining why Facebook does not make him as paranoid as Google, science fiction writer Cory Doctorow says frenemies will doom the social network: "Adding more users to a social network increases the probability that it will put you in an awkward social circumstance.... That's why I don't worry about Facebook taking over the net. As more users flock to it, the chances that the person who precipitates your exodus will find you increases. Once that happens, poof, away you go — and Facebook joins SixDegrees, Friendster and their pals on the scrapheap of net.history."
As we previously reported, with its upcoming redesigns MySpace intends to match Facebook feature by feature. The process begins Thursday, when MySpace will roll out its version of the Facebook News Feed, according to reports. The Facebook news feed — for those of you not familiar with current events of the past 100 years — is the constantly updated information stream which tells users what their friends are up to on the site and on the Web. Since It's the first thing users see when they log on, the news feed has become an important place for Facebook to serve advertisements. MySpace's copycat will be, too. Here's what it will look like, according to TechCrunch.
02138, an independent magazine for Harvard alumni, has done an in-depth profile of Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg and the on-campus origins of Facebook. There's plenty on the lawsuit filed by the Winklevoss twins and ConnectU, the Facebook rival for which Zuckerberg did some programming work. But the magazine digs deeper and gets some tantalizing details. Did you know that Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin and Zuckerberg sparred over money, and Saverin is suing Zuckerberg for squeezing him out of the company? Or that fellow Harvard alums Sanjay Mavinkurve, Joe Jackson, and Victor Gao also did programming for ConnectU — and thereby might have a claim to the title of wannabe Facebook founders? Aaron Greenspan, whose HouseSystem social network may have inspired Zuckerberg, also makes an appearance. Zuckerberg didn't speak to the magazine for the story, but his response to Harvard's Administrative Board still rings true today.
Facebook's new ad products haven't exactly taken off. Last week MoveOn.org joined the FTC in expressing concern over the social network's ad targeting. A brand manager told us that, compared to using Google's search marketing, Facebook ads required a lot of work, for not much payoff. Coca-Cola's brand page, for example, has under 1,000 fans. And finally, there's evidence that Facebook's flyers don't earn many clicks (unless they're porn). Users don't seem too interested in playing along with Facebook's grand plans. So what's a $15 billion social network trying to take over the world to do?
Sound the alarm bells: CPM Advisors has uncovered a drastic disparity between the demographics Facebook offers advertisers and the metrics ComScore independently reports. ComScore reports that 13.6 million U.S. people ages 35 or older use Facebook. Facebook, however, puts that number at only 1.26 million. What gives?
Perhaps taking a tip from Stephen King about America's youth and its lack of political knowledge, ABC is partnering with Facebook to create a political-coverage headquarters. You know, so between Wall posts and status updates, we can all get our daily Mitt fix. The deal will establish a U.S. Politics category on Facebook, allowing users to stalk follow ABC reporters, view reports, participate in polls, and carry on debates. ABC News, having recently discovered the notion of interactivity, says it will use Facebook as a platform to both share information and learn from its users. It's also likely the first time most of Facebook's users will learn that ABC has a news broadcast.
I thought it would be cool to friend Wired editor Chris Anderson on Facebook, considering the number of love-bites we've given him lately. But if G. Christopher Anderson from Wired has an account, it's buried in the long tail of 500-plus loose matches. Great. Facebook won't let me search for "Chris Anderson Wired." It won't let me join the work group for Wired or the Times or any other pub I write for, because I don't have an email address at their domains. Has Facebook heard of freelancing? One of the costs it cuts is the IT overheard of maintaining email addresses for hundreds of part-time contributors. But hey, Facebook will let T-shirt sites be my friend. If anyone wants to make some professional contact and get some real work done, I'll be over at LinkedIn.
You thought the prospect ofcorporations invading your Facebook news feed was bad? Our fascination with social networks has spawned a new breed of marketers hoping to sucker us in with social media. Jockey, the undergarments brand, is currently staging an underwear dance party, which asks users to upload a brief clip ... um, rather, video shorts ... no ... make that a filmic demonstration of them dancing in their 'roos for a chance to win $5,000. Dove's hosting a "Campaign For Real Beauty," which offers self-esteem tips to young girls and women. And Pepperidge Farm is trying to get women to connect via cookies with artofthecookie.com, which hired "lifestyle expert" Sally Horchow to provide tips that will help you connect with friends: "Brands are realizing they have to do a lot more than making something that tastes good. Connecting on a personal level with people makes your life better." That's just what we need, brands as helpful friends looking out for our wallets.
Is Facebook having problems keeping porn out of its advertisements? Seems so, according to this screenshot forwarded to us by a user. Our tipster also forwarded the screen shot to MoveOn.org, the group protesting Facebook's new ads that tell your friends about purchases you've made online. So expect a shortened holiday for Zuckerberg & Co., or at least Facebook's ad-monitoring team. Here's the ad in its original context. Parents should keep their children away. There's no telling what damage repeated exposure to a woman's breast can do to young ones.
So what do these Facebook ads which have MoveOn.org in an uproar actually look like? The ads, despite all the fuss, are cussedly hard to find. Mark Zuckerberg's hundred-year media revolution seems to be taking about that long to get underway. But Facebook fanboy Dave McClure has found an example in the wild. By buying a T-shirt on Busted Tees, he was able to capture screenshots of the ads MoveOn claims violate Facebook users' privacy. What do you think?
No, Victoria's Secret, I don't want to be your friend. Who are you empty-profile people sending out friend requests? I don't even know anyone who lives in that state. If longtime users have learned anything about Facebook, it's really little more than a friend-finding game. A game whose rules have become increasingly difficult to decipher as Facebook rolls out all these branded channels and marketer-assembled product profiles. It's so absurd that Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, authors of the videogame-focused Web comic Penny Arcade had to take a break from critiquing the game industry.
San Francisco real-estate agent and blogger Damion Matthews, left, apparently has a bit of a thing for Facebook board member and hedge-fund manager Peter Thiel, right. Matthews, who first blogged about Thiel in April, recently declared the financier "dreamy." Well, handsome enough, we'd say, but hardly dreamy. At any rate, we hate to break it to you, Damion, but Thiel's taken. If he weren't, though, you'd have a better shot than that Tennessee girl who lined up to get his autograph.
Now that we've heard that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has his own bodyguards, just like his pal Steve Ballmer, we're dying for some photos. If you've seen any bulky, black-suited guys with earpieces hanging out on University Avenue in Palo Alto, kindly snap a picture and send it in. But be warned: If they're not at least half as badass as this dude, we're going to be disappointed.
