Facebook is kind of the reason I'm here. Ben and I are Facebook friends, and one day I wrote a random little status thingy about liking Amy Winehouse. Ben likes Amy too, and dropped me a note. We had a little chat, and he suddenly said, 'Do you fancy doing the blog for a week?' And here I am. That's 21st Century networking for you.
Except it seems like it may not be for long. There's this row about Beacon, an advertising initiative that tracks your online purchases and then sells targeted ads on Facebook. Rather creepy. (50,000 users signed a petition against it, which shows the kind of near-instant people power you can generate online.) And apparently the Facebook bosses have been handling it all very badly and everyone now hates the site. (I have to say, I hadn't realised.)
I just thought this was all rather interesting. And as it's tangentially relevant to my presence here, I thought I'd pass it on.
and also (allegedly) anything you post or upload is there's to do with as they like... According to my girlfriend's illustration agent in the States.
Posted by: gareth | Dec 07, 2007 at 14:15
Ben - thx for the link. Just to let you know that I've now added some audio to the "Is facebook doomed" iPM post. I'm likely to put part of it on radio 4 tomorrow. Best - Rupert
Posted by: | Dec 07, 2007 at 15:57
Rupert - it would be dishonest of me, as this week's guest author, not to claim 100% credit for this link. Ben wouldn't have it any other way, I'm sure.
Posted by: Mike Reed | Dec 07, 2007 at 23:53
It might actually have some real utility around this time of year for the person who is really hard to buy for. Let's say, for example, that my sister-in-law, who is the hardest person in the world to buy for®, goes to the gap.com and buys a pair of pants. We're both on Facebook, so beacon would place that information on my news feed.
A few clicks of the mouse, and I've bought her a shirt that the Gap says goes with her pants.
Look, we marketers like to know stuff about our customers. The problem with facebook was the lack of transparency in the launch. One day it was on, the next it was off. Facebook is trying to make money while offering utility that quite frankly, I don't mind.
They need to mess with the technical stuff, but, once they do, I think this will be brilliant.
Matt Hames.
Posted by: Matt | Dec 11, 2007 at 16:31