Facebook Gets Personal With Ad Targeting Plan

SUMMARY
I found this article in the Wall Street Journal Web Site. It was writtien by VAUHINI VARA on August 23, 2007. It talks about Facebook's new advertising system that will allow advertisers to better target consumers based on the information that we provide in our profiles.

Currently, advertisments on facebook appear in the left hand side of the page positioned in a border format. We use facebook as a "Scrapebook" tool of our personal lives by posting pictures, friends, and groups up there. Right now, advertisers are limited to the information that they can see about us. They can see our age, location, and, gender.

The new system that Facebook is working on will change the advertising scheme in facebook. Ads will begin to appear in the news feeds and on pages that feature services provided by other companies. Advertisers will be provided with more information then just age, location, and gender. They will be able to better target us by being able to view things such as activities and music selections.

Facebook feels the need to get away from display ads because users are hardly noticing them. They are wrapped up in reading their friend's profiles and dont pay much attention to them. Facebook still plans to protect privacy rights among users by allowing them to keep certain things completely private.

MY OPINION
I dont think that this is so bad. As long as we arent bombarded with advetisements like spam mail, I think that this could work well. I believe that if advertisers have the ability to target us better, then maybe we will only get ads that we are interested in. I also think that we are the ones who are voluntarily providing our information. If we are bothered by the advertising and targeting with our information, then maybe we should reconsider what we publish to the public. What do you guys think?