socialads

In NY, anticipating a day with Zuckerberg and pals

The details of Facebook's "SocialAds" initiative, set to debut on Tuesday, have leaked through enough channels so that we have a pretty good idea of what we'll be hearing. SocialAds will not only serve up uber-targeted ads based on your Facebook profile information, there will allegedly be some sponsored vertical categories involved, as well as e-commerce tie-ins that will tell your friends what you've been buying, preferably with an opt-out clause.

Facebook rival MySpace, meanwhile, has recently introduced "HyperTargeting," a similar advertising strategy.

The debut event itself, intended to be shrouded in mystery, … Read more

MySpace gets 'Hyper' with targeted ads

MySpace.com, a high-profile player in Google's new OpenSocial developer project, isn't willing to let Facebook get away with stealing the week's big advertising headlines.

The News Corp.-owned social-networking site announced Monday morning that it has completed the first phase of a new advertising program it calls "HyperTargeting," which uses the information that members put in their profiles to serve up ads they might actually want to see.

MySpace initially began its HyperTargeting program in July, dividing its users into groups of "enthusiasts" in 10 categories (music, movies, personal finance, gaming, consumer … Read more

With SocialAds on the way, is Facebook getting the shakes?

There are just over 24 hours left until the formal announcement of Facebook's new advertising initiative. Is the site experiencing some jitters in preparation?

Late last week, one of my editors IMed me to ask whether Facebook was down. It was, but within five minutes, it was running again. Over the weekend, I noticed that the site was logging me out periodically. I wanted to check out a friend's new profile photo, but I repeatedly got log-in screens instead.

Then, on Monday morning, the site has slowed to a crawl. When I attempted to approve a new friend … Read more