Odd! The New York Times article on the heinous horrible awful-sounding new Facebook Ads: "Facebook now will give advertisers the ability to create their own profile pages on its system that will let users identify themselves as fans of a product. So each user's news feed will contain items like 'Bobby Smith is now a fan of Toyota Prius' or whatever." Or whatever! Ha! (Wow, Facebook is so over now!) Also: Did they not want to mention that NYTCo is paying big bucks to be (along with CondeNet and Crest Whitestrips) one of the "brands and companies launching with Facebook Ads"? [NYT]

Facebook wants to hire 50 new staffers for its U.K. offices, which open this week in London. Launched just after Facebook and Microsoft struck an international ad deal, the company's U.K. ads will be powered by Microsoft's Windows Live Search, Microsoft-sold banners, and technology that Microsoft received as part of its $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive. [paidContent]

If 'Gossip Girl' doesn't provide you with enough insight into the lives of privileged New York's youth, then let us direct your attention to "Under the Arch," a 7-minute-long "pilot" video by NYU junior Sean Patrick Murray, who is either a complete genius, or a total tool. Either way, he's kind of adorable&mdash and at the very least, he knows his MTV reality schtick&mdash it's all about the fast-moving-cloud shots, the angsty Z-100 soundtrack and the whiny blond chicks. Toss in a drug overdose and a catchprase like "Meet me at the Arch," and we can't see why this thing wouldn't get picked up in a millisecond&mdash he even made sure not to include any black, Hispanic or ugly students! It's perfect! Too bad it's not real. Oh&mdash never mind.

Facebook's privacy scandal is deepening as we learn more details. And it's worse than we thought. Not only can Facebook employees track which profiles you had viewed, but it's possible, and very easy, for Facebook employees to control any profile in the network. Once they control the profile, they can make any changes they want to and see any private data, like messages in the Facebook inbox. And all they had to do to get this access?

There seems to be a sudden rush of New York Times employees onto Facebook—including Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., publisher. He has 61 friends! But Times spokesbot Catherine Mathis is not among them. What up? And: Send us screenshots please! We are loving his business casual picture! Update: Ah ha! The Times is a "partner" in "Facebook Ads", which is going live tonight. It makes more sense now!

EXILE IN SOHO — Despite my best efforts — a suit, Brylcreem, and a side part — I didn't convince a posse of ID-checking Outcast flacks to let me into Facebook's invite-only ad event at Loft Eleven in Hell's Kitchen. But insiders are still keeping us informed about the event, where Facebook is launching new targeted ad products for Madison Avenue's big agencies. Here's what a tipster tells us.

Our Gawker Media colleague Scott Kidder, who is smart, handsome, talented, and responsible for getting us paid on time, points out the truly urgent need for Facebook to update its ad-targeting technology. Today it plans to announce a really peachy-keen system called SocialAds, but it's clearly not in effect yet. Check out the ad Facebook served Kidder, despite the fact that his Facebook profile reveals he's just turned 23. Kidder puts it best on his Tumblr post: "AARP? Really?"

In September, we idly speculated on what would happen if Facebook merged with Amazon.com. Now, in an extension to its new ad-targeting system, Facebook may well get all the benefits of such a partnership, without having to give up any control. AdAge reports that part of its new SocialAds will track buying activity on websites, and report to Facebook users' friends what they're buying. Creepy — but lucrative, since Amazon.com shares a cut of purchases with sites that refer buyers. And Amazon.com and Facebook have already teamed up to let users share book reviews.

HELL'S KITCHEN, MANHATTAN — Today Silicon Valley's favorite pair of Adidas sandals will finally take to Madison Avenue as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg & Co. plan to debut SocialAds, an ad network which will run behavioral-targeted ads on and off Facebook.com.

Want to know why Orkut never caught on? Google's motto is "don't be evil," not "don't be socially awkward." The programmatic list of "turn ons" it asks users to check off include "sarcasm," "tattoos," "erotica," "skinny dipping," and "long hair." A more perfect glimpse at the Google id won't be found anywhere. Here's the whole thing.

Some people think that the worst thing about social networking site Facebook is that its employees are spying on you and making fun of you and then threatening to delete your profile when you call them out on it! Others—well, one dorky WSJ employee in particular— feel that the worst thing about Facebook is that it makes you worry about whether Martha Stewart wants to be your friend when really you should be concerning yourself with "salaries and diapers," owing to the fact that you are a grown-up. But maybe the real worst thing about Facebook is the way the site disseminates "relationship stories," which is at once simplistic, inscrutable, and prudishly conservative!

Being a Brooklyn Writer turns out to be exactly how you imagine it to be, if debut novelist Porochista Khakpour's Facebook status update is to be believed.

InsideFacebook's Justin Smith managed to wrangle an interview with Google product manager and OpenSocial wonk Peter Chane. Smith even asked a few tough questions. Unfortunately, Chane gave him prolix answers. Here's the whole thing boiled down to one question and a 100-word response.

Tomorrow in New York, Facebook execs will pitch ad agencies on its SocialAds, which target users based on their activities on the site and place related ads in their news feeds. But today goes to MySpace. Or at least the next 5 minutes. Come on, 30 seconds? The News Corp.-owned social network will today formally launch "hyper targeting." Fifty advertisers, including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Ford and Toyota, have already signed on to target some of MySpace's 100 million users based on the information they enter into their profiles.

Facebook updated its code over the weekend and, according to reports, Facebook's much-anticipated SocialAds are now officially part of the ones and zeroes. Based on the updates, Allfacebook created this mock-up of what a SocialAd might look like. Hmm. Looks like an ad. Here's a more revealing shot.

Remember when the asinine office policy was to wear a Hawaiian shirt on Fridays? Serena Software, some boring company in San Mateo, has begun a policy of "Facebook Fridays," where the entire 900-person company is forced to spend an hour on Facebook, updating their profiles, throwing virtual sheep at each other, and, hopefully finding potential Serena employees while they're trolling for hotties. God, what is this economy coming to? Companies that force their employees to share information on a social network? Doomed to fail.

Remember the "sponsored groups" for which Facebook charges advertisers $100,000 a month? Those advertiser havens on the social network may soon be supplanted by a new form of advertising, VentureBeat reports. Codenamed "Pandemic," the ads will appear as "stories" — short items that appear on users' profiles — describing the actions Facebook users undertake on third-party websites. One example: a multiplayer game like World of Warcraft might inform a Facebook user's friends that he's reached a new level. Or a music store might inform friends of a recent purchase. The advantage over sponsored groups? The ads will be based on friends' activity, not some generic commercial message. That's the kind of information Facebook users are already looking for on the site, so presumably, the ads will gain a better reception. Or, equally possible, they'll be so creepy Facebook users will start groups on the site to complain about them.

Yesterday, Accel Partners VC Jim Breyer, who sits on Facebook's board with Peter Thiel and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, made an offhand comment about Facebook's unfinished financing round. Microsoft has already put in $240 million, and Facebook's board has authorized sleepless CFO Gideon Yu to go raise another $260 million. Here's what Breyer said to Silicon Alley Insider: "$50 million, $100 million, $200 million." He said it with a shrug, but we think his insouciance was feigned. That's because Facebook already has a firm commitment in hand for that $50 million Breyer mentioned. The board is still deciding whether to take that money.

Federal Trade Commission commissioner Jon Leibowitz is concerned. And not just about his obnoxiously redundant job title. In a "town hall" meeting held yesterday in Washington on the topic of online advertising and behavioral targeting, Leibowitz hinted that the agency might soon require users opt into behavioral targeting. Reportedly, executives from Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo were there to talk Leibowitz down from the ledge. This could be bad news for all them, but especially Facebook.