Facebook Adds Ads To News Feed

An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from an article at ZDNet: "As expected, Facebook has started displaying ads in users' News Feeds. You may not be seeing them yet as the company is rolling them out gradually, like it does for all its changes. ... Last month, a Facebook spokesperson said the company hoped to 'show people no more than one Sponsored Story in their News Feeds per day.' This is no longer the case, as Facebook now says you may see more Featured stories 'if you visit your News Feed a lot.'"

Comments

Only If You Have Liked Those Pages

[DCTech]

The article clearly notes (and shows screenshot) that the ads that will be displayed on your news feed are from pages you have liked. I only like pages I want to get updated information from (like Team Fortress 2 and some bands), and I get their news updates already. So what's the problem?

Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure that's how it works now, low load, gage effectiveness, then at some point a company strolls a long with an obscene bag of money and next thing you know every fifth item in the stream is "sponsored".

They've done it on Twitter already...

Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages

[Blue Stone]

Yeah, this seems reasonable, particularly if you know now that "Liking" a company's page will get their marketing served to you.

If someone doesn't like this, all they have to do is stop liking commercial organisation's web pages.

I don't, however, think that the one sponsored article per day limit will last very long. Facebook has a long and established track record for continually breaking self-imposed limits and boundaries.

Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages

[Anonymous Coward]

Enlarge your penis 4 inches in just two weeks!

Your fiance and 17 others like this

Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages

[Scutter]

The article clearly notes (and shows screenshot) that the ads that will be displayed on your news feed are from pages you have liked. I only like pages I want to get updated information from (like Team Fortress 2 and some bands), and I get their news updates already. So what's the problem?

The article seems to suggest that your friends will see it in their news feed (of you) if you've shared it with them in the past.

Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages

[jank1887]

and isn't that how Digg started down the path to oblivion?

Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages

[s.d.]

The article clearly notes (and shows screenshot) that the ads that will be displayed on your news feed are from pages you have liked

Actually, what it says is: "...you must have already Liked Ben & Jerry's Facebook Page, or one of your friends must have interacted with Ben & Jerry's Page."

So you can (and likely will) see ads from a page that your friend liked but you've never visited.

Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages

[Gilmoure]

Flip pancakes?

Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages

[Americano]

there apparently is not a way to rescind a "Facebook Like".

That'd be downright nefarious and dastardly, if it were even remotely true. From Facebook's online help system:

How do I unlike something?

You can unlike a piece of content or a Page on Facebook.
To unlike a piece of content that you or a friend has posted, just click the Unlike link that appears beneath the content itself.
To unlike a Page (which will also remove it from your profile/timeline), go directly to the Page and click the Unlike link in the lower left-hand column.

No real opt-out

[Ron2K]

TFA implies that there isn't any opt-out, other than unliking pages or nuking individual ads:

Since these ads are just stories, they cannot be stopped completely (although ad blockers may find a way around this). Users do, however, have three options provided by Facebook to limit the ads: click hide to remove individual stories, limit the volume of stories you see from a specific friend to only important posts, or unfriend the person and/or unlike the Page to stop seeing certain kinds of stories altogether.

This is going to piss off more than a few people...

Re:No real opt-out

[Anonymous Coward]

TFA implies that there isn't any opt-out, other than unliking pages or nuking individual ads:

Since these ads are just stories, they cannot be stopped completely (although ad blockers may find a way around this). Users do, however, have three options provided by Facebook to limit the ads: click hide to remove individual stories, limit the volume of stories you see from a specific friend to only important posts, or unfriend the person and/or unlike the Page to stop seeing certain kinds of stories altogether.

This is going to piss off more than a few people...

I'm with DCTech I only like stuff I actually like and want updates from, if you're one of those idiots who just "like's" everything then I feel no pity for you. I think the system they have set makes sense and people shouldn't complain about ads when it is free platform they are providing us, they need some way to monetize and stay operational.

Re:No real opt-out

[LoverOfJoy]

"One of those idiots" probably isn't applicable to most of the /. populace...

You must be new here.

Re:No real opt-out

[makomk]

I think that presumably only works if it was you that liked the page in the first place. If it was one of your friends, you're going to be stuck with defriending them or otherwise ignoring their posts in general.

Re:No real opt-out

[Americano]

Right, because Google+ - created by a company whose entire existence is predicated on the serving of ads to subsidize all their "free" content and services - isn't going to use their data to serve you ads, either.

Re:Money

[kestasjk]

They made $4.27bn in revenue last year, I think you've got Facebook and Twitter confused.

Slashdot loves facebook

[ieatcookies]

Free service puts some ads up, next story at 11. I predict yhis submission still gets 5000 comments with the obligatory "that's why I have never had a Facebook account" and "Facebook is selling your info to nazis". Slashdot loves to hate.

Re:Slashdot loves facebook

[Scutter]

Free service puts some ads up, next story at 11. I predict yhis submission still gets 5000 comments with the obligatory "that's why I have never had a Facebook account" and "Facebook is selling your info to nazis". Slashdot loves to hate.

It's not even slightly free. You're paying by giving them a huge amount of marketable data about yourself. Just because it doesn't cost you actual dollars doesn't mean you aren't paying.

Re:Slashdot loves facebook

[Scutter]

Yup. Huge amounts of data. My name and birthdate. Have fun with that.

Most people who use Facebook willingly supply them with much more info than that. The names and relationships of all of their friends and family, what they like, e-mail addresses, what web sites they browse (if they don't clear FB cookies), etc. Obviously, you're not a typical FB user, but I would be surprised if they didn't know a lot more about you than you think.

I have no problem with this in and of itself. If people want to play Farmville and are happy with Zynga having all of their personal information, that's between them and Zynga. My only point is that one shouldn't mistake Facebook for a free website.

Re:Slashdot loves facebook

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay I will.

FACEBOOK CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY
© Facebook, Inc. 2010. All Rights Reserved.
V.0510 LAW ENFORCEMENT USE ONLY page 6 of 9

Description of available data
Upon receipt of a valid subpoena or a legal document with equivalent authority issued through your local court system, the following information may be provided:
REGISTRATION DATA: User Basic Subscriber Information (BSI)
BSI is the registration information from a user profile. It may include the following, depending on the availability at the time of processing of your request:
User Identification Number
E-mail address
Date and Time Stamp of account creation date displayed in Coordinated Universal Time
Most Recent Logins (generally captures the last 2-3 days of logs prior to processing the request) in Coordinated Universal Time
Registered Mobile Number
Status of whether user profile is publicly indexed by search engines
BSI is delivered in XML format.
TRANSACTIONAL DATA: IP Logs
We have a limited capacity to retrieve specific logs and are technically limited from providing "everything" within a specific date range. In addition, we are unable to testify to the completeness of the data. Please specify the type of log you are seeking (i.e. creation log) so that we can retrieve the log accordingly:
IP logs can be produced for a given user ID or IP address. IP logs contain the following information:
[Column One] Viewtime – Date of execution, in Pacific Time Zone (UTC -8 / -7).
[Column Two] Userid – The Facebook user ID of the account active for the request
[Column Three] IP – Source IP address
IP Logs are delivered in a tab delimited text file.
Emergency Disclosures
Facebook is committed to responding appropriately to emergencies. An Emergency Disclosure Form is provided below and may be submitted by your local law enforcement official or an authorized U.S. legal representative assisting you with your investigation. E-mail the Emergency Disclosure Form to subpoena@fb.com and include “Emergency Request” in the subject header. If we believe in good faith that the matter is regarding potential bodily harm or death of a person, the Facebook Security Team will respond within a timely manner.
Special Requests
The Facebook Security Team may be able to retrieve specific information not addressed in the general categories above. Please contact Facebook at subpoena@fb.com if you have a specific investigative need prior to issuing a legal request and provide all identifying information as described above.

FACEBOOK CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY
© Facebook, Inc. 2010. All Rights Reserved.
V.0510 LAW ENFORCEMENT USE ONLY page 8 of 9
Facebook Profile Data Request Template Form
Note to Law Enforcement: Please use this template and add it to your legal documentation. This will enable our team to process your legal request accordingly. If this is regarding matter related to potential bodily harm or death, please use our EMERGENCY DISCLOSURE FORM provided in the Facebook Law Enforcement Guidelines.
1. Brief description of investigation:
[NAME OF YOUR AGENCY] is currently investigating [DESCRIPTION OF INVESTIGATION], [YOUR CASE/REFERENCE NUMBER], taking place on Facebook.com.
2. Legal Authority with details (i.e. local criminal code):
3. Profiles:
We request access to the following data, pursuant through our appropriate judiciary court order, the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, and the above-mentioned legal authority, for the following Facebook user(s), group(s) and/or event(s):
Profile Name/Group/Event
ID Number/email address
4. Data requested:
{Please add an “x”}
Basic Subscriber Information
Recent IP Address Login (if available)
Specific log including date and time zone (if available, i.e. creation log)
Removal of profile/content (describe th

Re:Slashdot loves facebook

[Americano]

Wait, the names of my family and friends is now "private, privileged information"? Since fucking when?

Jesus you schizos need some perspective. If you're using Facebook to store your medical data, carry on illicit affairs with co-workers, orchestrate & document your life of crime, and post videos, photos, and messages about your kinky sexual fetishes - if you entrust anything other than the most banal trivia to Facebook, in other words - you're a first rate idiot.

"I LOVE KELLY CLARKSON'S NEW SONG!" and "LOL MY CAT POOPED A LOT TODAY! GROSS!" are not exactly "private, privileged" pieces of information that are going to have immense negative social and financial repercussions on the person posting them. If you cannot draw a line between information that is "private and privileged" and information that is "of no particular private or privileged nature," then you probably shouldn't be on Facebook at all.

Re:DON'T ACCEPT THIS !! CALL FB AND COMPLAIN !!

[19thNervousBreakdown]

I can't wait to see 40 of these reposted as status updates on facebook.

Make no sense

[Rik Sweeney]

What's the point of running an advert in your News Feed for, say, Ben and Jerry's if you already Like it? You're the only one who'll see it and since you already like it, they're not encouraging anyone else to try their product.

What FB wants to do is show adverts for things you like in your friends News Feeds.

Shit :(

Re:Make no sense

[Turken]

Dang. Read the article more closely, and you're right. Looks like Facebook is giving commercial pages the ability to repost friends' activity to your feed in case you missed it the first time the friend liked (or did whatever else with) thier page.

This does not look good. While I personally keep my "liked" pages to a bare minimum, I have lots of family and friends that are overly promiscuous with their clicks. I don't want to block everything from those people, but I don't want to be constantly barraged with posts from companies they've liked either.

Suppose this would be a good time to remind all the friends and family that Google+ is still available and only half as evil...

Re:Facebook is waste of time!

[metalgamer84]

Negative Ghost Rider, this is the "me" generation.

Everyone in the world needs to know about "me" all the time. What im doing, where im going, what im buying, what im watching, etc.

Re:Advertisements - AUGH!

[forkfail]

Your post as it will appear in 10 years (after being run through the post post processor):

I just wish they would stop invading every aspect of our lives (Have you kept up with Real Lives of Guatemalan Maids on NBC?) We seem them on TV (Get the new Samsung Smell-O-Vision today!), in our snail (Get Pest Be Gone for your garden!) mail, at the movie theater (try Fandango!), in the movies (Check out the release of Saw XXVII) themselves, along the highways (BP - the clean energy company), on the radio (listen to KRAP in the mornings!), on our new computers (Buy a Dell! Less bloatware than Gateway!), on the internet (did you check your Facebook this hour?), in video games (get Bloody Carnal Pleasures in time for Christmas!), in our email boxes (shop at Office Warehouse for all your shipping needs!), and many more places.

Goodness (come to Mikes Mega Church), when will we be free of Ads?

I understand free (get free stuff from FreeStuff4U.com!) sites require ads (hate ads? try ad away!) to keep up their free services (lonely? call service girl tonight!), so that is annoying but understandable (try Rosetta Stone!) in my opinion (be heard! try BlogMe today!).

We're not even given the ability to tell ad companies (get 10% off on bulk email when you send 100k mails or more at supespam!), [SOPA deleted phrase]. they pop-up (erectile dysfunction? try BoneBHere!), they blare at you from your TV (still haven't tried that new Samsung? Do you hate America?), you can't fast forward (get a free green ray player when you sign up for Comcraps 10 year contract!) or close them to get rid of them (embarrassing skin condition? try Baby's Ass today!) AUGH! (Feeling down? Try soma today!)

Stupid (is your child lagging behind? Use lrn2lrn today!) Monkey (vote for Mikey McHonest!)!

The $1000 "ad tax"

[ljw1004]

US annual expenditure on advertising: $300 billion
US population: 300 million

Each of us is paying $1000 per year to have irritating ads thrust in our faces. The money ends up in the pockets of the advertising middle-men like facebook and google and ad agencies. The companies pay it to promote their products. They pass the cost onto us the consumers who buy their products.

I'm unhappy as heck paying $1000 per year for the "joy" of having ads stuffed in my face. I think the figure should be much lower. This is a business that has gotten out of control through a people brainwashed (by advertising!) to think that this level of advertising is normal.