What is Digg?48 Comments
- maggotin, on 12/04/2007, -1/+30Facebook knows about his unibrow.
- trollick, on 12/04/2007, -2/+23"People are not coming to Facebook to click ads"
Where do they go to click ads? - inactive, on 12/04/2007, -0/+15On the subject of Facebook marketing, why do they keep serving me up with "Gay Dating" adverts? Maybe Facebook knows something about me that I don't after all.
- captaindigger, on 12/04/2007, -0/+13That dude in the pictures gives a new definition to the meaning of unibrow. I tend to disagree with this. Most people fill in interest and they can market to that. Say someone puts in Gardening and Facebook shows marketing ads for Garden seeds.
- inactive, on 12/04/2007, -0/+11Digg of course. You see that ad to the right of the title? Me neither.
- SpykerSpeed, on 12/04/2007, -0/+9A $15 bn valuation means to buy Facebook outright, you'd be paying upwards of $300 per user. To quote Team America: "MAAATTTT DAAMON."
- bulkhater, on 12/04/2007, -1/+8If you'd read the actual article instead of just the summary, you;d know that one of the author's points is that FaceBook fails to make use of what it knows about you in its ads.
- latova, on 12/04/2007, -3/+10Facebook needs its own category on digg because theres way too many articles going to the front page about it.
- danhillmoses, on 12/04/2007, -2/+9Facebook doesn't know what books I like? What about the "favorite book" section I filled in?
This guy is BS. - NekoIan, on 12/04/2007, -1/+8Doesn't Google make wads of cash from contextual advertising?
- geekchic, on 12/04/2007, -2/+8The other myth is that Microsoft's investment values the company at $15 billion.
Look at what the investment was for - it was for a percentage stake AND and extension on their advertising deal.
If you look at the percentage alone, then there is a $15 billion valuation, but the advertising extension is arguably more important to Microsoft. Indeed, you could easily argue that the "investment" was simply an upfront payment of their advertising revenues, and internally Microsoft could put a zero valuation on its shareholding. - fuzzmeister, on 12/04/2007, -0/+6While Facebook still has a long way to go on getting their ads right, I think the potential is enormous. While what they know about you doesn't completely describe your life, it is a hell of a lot more than TV advertisers know about you, or even advertisers on Google. They just need to make it easy, effective, and profitable for advertisers, and serve ads in a way that doesn't spawn yet another user revolt.
- m00kie, on 12/04/2007, -4/+9google search result pages for starters, friend.
- Jack9, on 12/04/2007, -0/+5We'll ignore the fact that he doesnt know the difference between demographic and contextual targetting. He's wrong on many many levels, but mostly about the valuation (see my comment under the article)
- davidrools, on 12/04/2007, -0/+5There is a section on your profile to put your favorite books/movies/tv shows/music/interests/activities. That would be an EXCELLENT way to target advertising toward things the user actually would like to buy (movies from the same director/actors as their favorites, gear for the sports/activities you list, etc).
Then if the targeted ads follow you when you visit your other facebook pages besides your own profile (where you spend most of the time), they can still send you ads targeted at you, rather than matching the content that's on the current page a la google (because I'm not into the stuff my weird friends are into, i just want to read their wall) - m0zzie, on 12/04/2007, -0/+4so myspace sucks in general and facebook is invading our privacy and getting all cocky about its worth.. solution?
diggers unite: Facespace. - MrSpontaneous, on 12/04/2007, -1/+5I agree. To see some data they've parsed, click your Networks link and choose a network. Then scroll down and click on the "See more stats" link in the right sidebar.
Buried as inaccurate. - remthewanderer, on 12/04/2007, -3/+7Ad block plus FTW? Who sees Ads on the interweb anymore?
- Jareth86, on 12/04/2007, -1/+5Adblock plus. Problem solved.
- DatVillain83, on 12/04/2007, -0/+4He makes a great argument however i disagree with his whole myth premise, it never really mattered whether Facebook stowed away personal information about me because while people might believe its completely anonymous, 3rd party applications are exactly reason the myth exists in the first place. Developers are scrambling over the given opportunity to exploit Facebook, and I don't mean that in a malicious sense either, but it's simply a chance for companies to get their "Face" shown if you will. But, it also means companies are collecting consumer information, i.e. psychometrics, and this information wasn't really relevant before Facebook was a closed source platform when only one psychometric existed; College Students (age 17-25). Real personal information DOES exist on the Facebook, it's gotten people fired from work, students disciplined at school, and shamefully embarrassed and humiliated millions of people indirectly when least expected.
- jheimark, on 12/04/2007, -0/+3Social networks and contextual advertising within them are a new phenomenon. Seems to me the same argument could have been made for Google a while back (they have no information about me other than what I'm searching for at that moment), and advertisements in searches did not seem like such an obvious cash cow as it does now.
Given time, sites like facebook will either learn how to develop relevant ads, or they won't. If they do (and I think there's a significant chance that they will), facebook will generate a huge amount of cash flow, with very small costs (see: Google). That's the justification for a high valuation. VERY high growth potential.
If you don't think it's a smart bet, then don't invest. OH SNAP! YOU CAN'T! It's a private company. Only big companies like Microsoft can afford to buy in. And they did.
On another note, to suggest that Microsoft bought in only to advertise seems to prove the argument false. If the advertising is useful, then facebook has value. - jenny867, on 12/04/2007, -3/+6Just like when i watch tv, the only ads that mean much to me, are contextual to my location, and when I say location I mean the CITY in which I live in.
What percentage of users information in facebook/myspace/randomsocialwebsite is legit, and real?
The problem at hand is not an easy problem to solve, facebook will fail, others will be aided with the learnings of facebook. - acesfull9, on 01/01/2008, -0/+3Yeah, but Facebook does knows who you are friends with, what groups you belong to, the area in which you live, ect.. and they can keep statistics of what ads people who are your friends, in groups with you or live in the same area have responded well to and post the same ads for you assuming you will do the same. On a large scale this could work very VERY well.
- DatVillain83, on 12/04/2007, -0/+2yeah but this doesn't apply when you have a google account. log into your gmail/google checkout account and everything is there; number of times you visited a site and credit card information. and if the OpenSocial platform becomes popular absolutely everything will become transparent for the world to see.
- bonkeykong, on 12/04/2007, -2/+4What about the Myth of Contextual Unibrow Shaving?
- richbradshaw, on 12/04/2007, -1/+3Umm - yes it does. Try using easylist and easyelement list from Rick's site.
- justanillusion, on 12/04/2007, -0/+2This sort of advertising is properly known as Database Marketing where marketers can track the products and services you purchase via computer and he's right with regards to Amazon and their "recommendations" section. It's mostly used in mailing lists and newsletters but because of the influx of users of the social networks, marketers are adapting this to suit the areas of the internet which have the greatest consumer availability. Just now I guess it isn't so advanced to take in all the information on a person's profile like books and music, but I can't see it being far off.
Great. Just when you thought you escaped the clutches of ads on TV and then even the dreaded pop ups, they're right there next to that pic of you and THAT guy/girl on Saturday night. Oh, yay. - HonoredMule, on 12/04/2007, -0/+2Garden seeds? Cool! I thought you had to get seeds for all the individual plants/flowers/weeds and culture them independently.
- topace3000, on 12/05/2007, -0/+2Uh... actually most facebook profiles have a LOT MORE than what it shows, and it seems like its already way more information than most other ad services would get. I'd say the potential for targetted ads on facebook is very high, and that this article is idiotic.
- inactive, on 12/05/2007, -0/+2A wife? Is Facebook telling me I have a wife now?
- inactive, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1FaceBook will go down in history as the second BlueMountain.
http://smartstartup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/ ... - spudnic, on 12/05/2007, -0/+1Came here to make more or less the same comment, there is more than enough info there to excite marketing companies. I think he'd be supprised how much of the stuff he thinks they don't know the marketers could guess with the info given.
This guy really doesn't understand how advertising works. - fuzzmeister, on 12/05/2007, -0/+1You can already target ads that way through Facebook, it's actually quite cool.
- xvrlax, on 12/05/2007, -0/+1Its only a matter of time before facebook hooks up with companies such as amazon or google and begin using meta data to follow everything we do so that they can tailor adds to each user and make some serious money.
- khyberkitsune, on 12/05/2007, -0/+1assbook.com
- sillywampa, on 12/05/2007, -0/+1perfect example. my profile says I'm married and they know how old I am. Why would they give me ads about dating. Why not ads about sound financial investments or stuff I might want to buy for my kids for christmas.
- somerandomnerd, on 12/05/2007, -0/+1Google placed ads that are relevant to the pages they are on, so you might have a Ford ad on a car website. Sure, you can then present a different ad to different users based on their cookie trail (say, a "test drive a ford today" advert to someone who has been Googling for Ford recently, but a "why not look at some information about Ford?" advert to the rest), but you're still talking about ads from the same client (and therefore most likely for the same brand.)
Facebook's ads are relevant to the user they are targetting.
(Supposedly...) - inactive, on 12/04/2007, -1/+1AdBlock doesn't let us block Facebook ads (yet?) anyway.
- trollick, on 12/04/2007, -1/+1But, as the guy pointed out, on Google people SEARCH for things. On Facebook... I honestly have no idea what the heck people do there.
- tattertech, on 12/04/2007, -1/+1If you want to get technical, Facebook is focused more on behavioral/demographic than contextual information. The ads follow you around facebook regardless of what content is on the page you're looking at. Contextual would imply it's only serving ads based on what's sitting on the page in front of you, rather than your actual interests.
- Trudge, on 12/05/2007, -0/+0Regardless of how seemingly pointless or annoying those advertisements are, especially on a social network such as Facebook, they will always be there, because somewhere down the line someone thought it would be a good idea to click on one of them. and that's all the companies are looking for.
- TunaFisu, on 12/04/2007, -1/+1Yes, but people visit google literally to click on the links. They have the sweetest business model on the web.
Anyway, facebook is entirely a play on that current users keep using it after they leave college, get a job and start to have real money. They have about a decade to tune their strategy. - DHels13, on 12/05/2007, -0/+0Facebook could make lots of money if they somehow developed a way to use certain words or interests in user profiles to sell advertisements based on the words much like Google does with its adwords.
- m0zzie, on 12/05/2007, -0/+0haha.. or even, assface.com
- captaindigger, on 12/04/2007, -4/+3Wow you must lead a very exciting and fulfilling life.
- EnergyEinstein, on 12/04/2007, -2/+1Maybe someone on your computer visits sites with naked men? A wife maybe? :)
- petebot, on 12/04/2007, -2/+1Yes, but that assumes you fill it out correctly, and don't change your mind. For instance, when I was in college my favorite movie was Billy Madison. People usually just blurt out whatever they can think of at the moment, and change it all the time. On my Myspace page, for instance, , I listed a bunch of fake movies from other movies (for instance "Who dat ninja? from 30 Rock...) How is someone going to use that to market to me?
- Tinu, on 12/04/2007, -14/+4I mean, I'm normally a Ridiculously paranoid person. But even I don't think FB has some evil hold over all my info. Plus, they only know as much about you as you share. Who says you have to fill in stuff or share stuff you don't want people to see/know/have?
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