In a previous article I have discussed the investment from Microsoft into Facebook which has made them a serious player in the growing market of social advertising. User’s put a great deal of information onto these sites, which they hand over with great readiness, search engines believe this to be perfect for advert targeting to specific user’s on these social sites.
This week however these boundaries were tested to breaking point.Facebook members have forced the social networking site to change the way a controversial ad system worked. More than 50,000 Facebook users signed a petition calling on the company to change or withdraw its Beacon advertising technology.
If and when different Facebook users went shopping online, Beacon told friends and businesses what they looked at or bought. Many considered the data sharing to be an intrusion too far.
As a result of this petition, Facebook’s 55 million members will have more control over whether data about what they do online is used for Beacon. After complaints the site was invading privacy, Facebook changed Beacon from an opt-out system to opt in.
This week we saw yet another example of the continuing search war between the so called big fish of the industry.
The advent of social networking sites has brought about a new angle for search engines to think about.
MySpace was the first big social networking site to come about but in recent times the big mover in this area has been Facebook.
With more than 50 million users worldwide and a user base that is growing faster than great rival MySpace. It adds 200,000 new users each day.
Facebook is seen as the cooler way of blogging on the web, with the average user spending up to 3.5 hours a week using their personal space on the site. Emails have been replaced with messaging, and status updates allow the user to describe what they are up to or how they are feeling.
One other growth area within the social network of Facebook is the outlet of applications. Software programmers are able to freely launch their applications with audiences in the millions.
Microsoft’s investment makes them a serious player in the growing market of social advertising.
User’s put a great deal of information onto these sites, which they hand over with great readiness, search engines believe this to be perfect for advert targeting to specific user’s on these social sites.
The value of Facebook is based on a 1.6% share of the firm being worth the $240m Microsoft paid for it. Microsoft and Google were in a bidding war for a slice of the firm and both companies have deep pockets.
This puts a value on Facebook of over $15 Billion, from Microsoft’s perspective anyway. Some have seen this bidding war as more of a personal battle than a business one.
