22 April 2010Facebook poised to “take over” the Internet?
Big Brother? Terminator??
Business Insider had a great article today on Facebook’s new Open Graph Initiative. According to Facebook’s Founder, Mark Zuckerberg stated that “the power of the open graph is that it helps to create a smarter, personalized web that gets better with every action taken.”
To it’s opponents that means that Facebook now has the ability to “connect the dots” where developers lay the groundwork for it to do so. Thus, if you are on one of the “early adopter” sites like Orkut or FriendConnect, what you do there will be ‘added’ to your Facebook activity. The more and more sites that sign on for this graph initiative, the more you are tracked for what Facebook calls “actionable intelligence”. That is a marketing term for “hey we know what you are doing, when and where, and now we can deliver ads and information that reflect your interests even better!”
This is behavioral targeting at it’s finest, IF it works according to Facebook’s plan. This article claims that Facebook may have just found a way to surpass Google. I would put the brakes on that thought. Think a little harder and you will recall that Google is poised to bring FTTH (fiber to the home) in the U.S.. In the U.S., I would say that Google definitely holds the trump card. Facebook may be able to get ‘actionable intelligence” from it’s users from all over the Internet via this new initiative; but Google can “own them” at their home. Touche!
Second, as Facebook begins this effort, they have International Privacy Laws to contend with that will have a direct effect on any global ability. Just because you have it in your EULA or Terms of Service doesn’t mean that it will be upheld around the world as approved. It also doesn’t mean that countries like China will permit you to do this, or won’t want the information for their own use. Trust me, there is more to come on this subject! Just ask Google.
The closing thought in this article was the most funny one: ”Bonus conspiracy theory: former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer (and genuine, great guy) Chris Kelly is running for California Attorney General.
California’s Governor is Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Ahnold was The Terminator.
Circle. Complete.”
What do you think?
Leave a reply below, I would love to hear from you!
Tags: Behavioral Marketing, Contextural Advertising, Facebook, Google, Google FTTH, Intenret Marketing, internet consumer behavior, Internet Privacy, Open Graph Initiative, Social Media Marketing, Web Analytics
Carolyn McCarthy
23 June 2010, 8:01 am
This is absolutely one of the more fascinating sites I have seen. It is so easy to get jaded, but there’s still some great material out there, and I believe your website is really on the short list!