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Facebook Adds Ads To News Feed

Posted by Unknown on from the worse-than-mafia-wars dept.

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.'"

11 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Only If You Have Liked Those Pages by DCTech · · Score: 4, Informative

    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?

    1. Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages by Blue+Stone · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

      --
      Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
    2. Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Enlarge your penis 4 inches in just two weeks!

      Your fiance and 17 others like this

    3. Re:Only If You Have Liked Those Pages by Americano · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

  2. No real opt-out by Ron2K · · Score: 5, Informative

    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...

  3. Slashdot loves facebook by ieatcookies · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Slashdot loves facebook by Scutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --

      "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    2. Re:Slashdot loves facebook by Scutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --

      "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
  4. Make no sense by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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 :(

    --
    Summation 2
    1. Re:Make no sense by Turken · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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...

  5. Re:Advertisements - AUGH! by forkfail · · Score: 4, Funny

    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!)!

    --
    Check your premises.