I thought this announcement by Google in the post called Google News Goes Social was a brilliant move on their part. Google created a Facebook application that lets users have news and customized searches appear on their profile pages. Of course it also lets the user share any results page. As you know, MSN bought the right to monetize inventory and when Facebook opened up to allow new applications, I guess the folks at Google seized on this opportunity to create an application that can help drive some of that traffic back to the mother ship. Brilliant plus a little evil to boot.
Following that announcement, Steve Rubel posted this today under the title Schmidt Hints AdSense Maybe Coming to Facebook Apps that Eric Schmidt would like to have their ads in those applications so you can bet to see Google monetize more of that traffic without really getting into bed with Facebook. Clearly Google has a purpose to get at that traffic which doesn't seem to be slowing down as proven by Bill Tancer over at Hitwise.
I wonder what Facebook is going to do about a potential increase in
ads and how much will that piss off their users who are still predominately around college age. Sure a bunch of us 30+ professionals have jumped on board realizing how much more interactive using Facebook is compared with Linkedin, but at the end of the day Facebook is still driven by the 18-30 crowd, right? 
Witness the ads that you find on the small left hand skyscraper. Most of them are untargeted, network buys, but when they are targeted it seems to be at a macro level and not geared towards any profile data or behavioral targeting data. Frequently the ads are filled by Virgin Mobile, Dating sites, Pimple Ads and those are the professional ones not the ones made using the Facebook Flyer platform. The Facebook Flyers at least seem to be more targeted because I saw one for The Rutgers Network and then another one (dating) targeting 30+. Check out this screen shot of some ads.
Anyway I think the battle over Facebook is far from over and that includes who gets to power ads in their pages. I wonder how long before MSN starts barking about the Google Facebook App?
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
Comments