A Social Network’s Faux Pas?

Facebook has a history of surviving outraged threats to quit. After speculation that Facebook would open membership to anyone with an e-mail address, users started a group called I WILL Leave Facebook If It Becomes Public. The site became accessible to users outside of professional and academic networks last fall. The group still has 28 members, all of whom have active profiles.

A similar uproar occurred when Facebook debuted its News Feed application in early September last year. (When members sign on to the site, they are greeted by a list of their friends' recent profile edits.) The group Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook) has 240,746 members, while the group Facebook News Feed Sucks has 1,719 members. But many Facebook members have come to embrace the News Feed. "I like the part of Facebook that tells you who broke up with who and what everyone is up to," says Tony Gingrasso, a 27-year-old law student at Hameline University in St. Paul, Minn. Gingrasso thinks Facebook's new targeted ads may very well go the route of the News Feed. "I think that people will eventually accept it as part of the site," he says.

Facebook will be using the News Feed as part of its new Social Ads application. "Social Ads provide advertisements alongside related actions your friends have taken on the site," writes Pearlman in her blog entry. "These actions may be things like 'Leah is now a fan of the Offspring' (if I added the Offspring to my music) or 'Justin wrote a review for Sushi Hut' (If Justin wrote this review on the Sushi Hut page). These actions could then be paired with an ad that either the Offspring or Sushi Hut provides."

Gingrasso has "biking" listed as an interest on his profile, and when asked how he would respond to a targeted Facebook ad from a St. Paul-area bike shop, Gingrasso said he would welcome the information. Blake Lichty agrees. "People of our generation know that things are constantly coming out that are revolutionary and new," says the 25-year-old Bostonian. "If you're browsing a friend's vacation photos on Facebook and all of a sudden an ad comes up for vacations in Cabo, well, people click on that stuff. They see it."

For Lichty the bottom line is that "Facebook is free. No one is forcing you to be a member." And, oh yeah, he adds, "you always have the option of deleting your profile."

© 2007