There are a lot of cynics and skeptics out there who think Facebook is a great place for social networking, but not a great place to make money. One company in particular has proven them wrong, not by putting up mass-appeal banner ads, but by targeting extremely specific demographics and showing them products that they might actually want to buy.
That's how it's supposed to work, isn't it? Advertising isn't supposed to be a nuisance - annoying popup ads for products that you don't want don't do anybody any good. But if a friend of yours knows that you live in New York and like Ethopian food, and they let you know about a new restaurant you might be interested in, and even give you a coupon, that's a different story.
Facebook has a lot of info about a lot of people, and without going into privacy issues here, that's useful in terms of targeting ads. So they feel less like spam and more like suggestions that might actually be useful. And that's good for everyone.
That's not terribly different from the way gmail scans the text of your emails and displays ads in the sidebar that are related to your conversation. The suggestions might not be perfectly targeted, but they're better than random ads that aren't targeted at all, I think.
San Francisco Web Design
Posted by: San Francisco Photographer | July 21, 2009 at 02:59 PM