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May 12, 2008

May 12, 2008

Social Data Portability: Will It Affect Advertising?

Suddenly all the social networking majors are racing to see who can break down their own walls the fastest -- and in the case of Google, to make the switch from sheet rock to plumbing, if you'll forgive an overstretched metaphor.

Shortly after News Corp. announced its data portability initiative last week, Facebook chimed in with its own proposal to give users control over their identities. Called Facebook Connect, the initiative will launch in the next few weeks and allow Facebook users to carry their basic profile information, friends and privacy settings around with them. "We believe the next evolution of data portability is about much more than data," the company stated in a blog post Friday. "It's about giving users the ability to take their identity and friends with them around the Web, while being able to trust that their information is always up to date and always protected by their privacy settings."

Google meanwhile announced Friend Connect, a project to help any site owner add social capabilities. According to Google, visitors to any site using the service "will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends, or, using secure authorization APIs, with existing friends from social sites on the web, including Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more." MySpace was not mentioned in the announcement, which is odd given it's part of Google's Open Social platform geared toward third party app developers.

What do these data portability initiatives mean for advertising? That may depend on who wins the right to host and manage large numbers of consumer profiles. If it's a private entity such as Google, MySpace or Facebook, profile portability will lead to new forms of contextual and behavioral targeting. For instance, imagine Facebook's Beacon and Social Ads programs reinvented to offer alerts and ads that take into account your interactions on thousands of sites. On the other hand, if a non-profit such as the Mozilla Foundation wins the right to manage your data in this fashion, such an outcome would seem less likely.

On another level, marketers who want to add more interactivity and social features on their Web sites may be able to work with Friend Connect to achieve that. Ning and MyBlogLog offer different services along similar lines. The former is a white label social networking platform. The latter is a system for tracking and publishing profiles of your site visitors, and allowing them to interact with each other.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

U.K. Facebook Creatives Branded 'Illegal'

A range of ads promoting credit and loan facilities on Facebook are in fact illegal, according to U.K. debt charity Credit Action.

The charity has said that a number of companies advertising on the social networking site are not providing information on their products that is required to satisfy U.K. advertising laws set out by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

An article on the credit action website reads, "If you've been on Facebook recently, you can't miss the adverts for 'payday loans' and credit cards. What you may not have realised is that many of these ads are breaking the law!"

The offending ads fail to state the annual percentage rate of interest (APR) of the loans being advertised. According to Credit Action, this information must be clearly displayed if the ad offers an incentive or interest-free period, makes comparisons with other lenders' products, or provides services tailored for those with poor credit histories.

Malcolm Hurlston, the charity's chief executive, said that some of the companies are U.S.-based lenders who may not be aware of U.K. advertising rules, but that others are from big-name firms who have been active in this country for some time.

"We must be sure that such creative products concur with existing rules and regulations and offer customers the full protection of the law," he told the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper.

Credit Action has written to the OFT complaining about the ads, but says that users should also report them to Facebook.

Offending companies include Payday U.K., Payday Advance U.K. and My Payday Online.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Online Classified Ads, Another View

"Online Classifieds Have Grown Up," writes Brad Waller, VP, business and affiliate development of ePage, in response to my column that examines why more classified ad sites haven't incorporated more interactive features.

The online classified site, he says, has been around since 1994 and that consumers are the ones who've resisted change.

"We offered audio many years ago and it never took off. We have offered video for a few years and very few users have chosen to upload any," he writes.

So why aren't more people using audio and video in classified ads?

"Audio was and still is too hard for most people. Video is a harder question. Everyone seems to have video capability on the cell phone, most digital cameras have video, and now there is the relatively cheap Flip (and other) video cameras. I really did expect video to take off because the barrier to entry is so low. My best guess on the lack of video is the demographics of the average classifieds user. Classifieds is not the realm of the 18-34 who grew up with technology. Sure, they are users, but there are a lot of older users who feel comfortable with classifieds. They are simple and easy to understand."

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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