Facebook Ads

Last week Facebook launched Facebook ads which very closely resembles Google Adwords. You can bid for as low as 1 cent per click as long as you set your daily max at $5.00. The ads are very targeted because they use the individuals profile data such as age, sex, interests, etc, to serve a relevant ad which has generated some controversy concerning privacy. If a user updates their "status", an imitation of Twitter in which they tell everyone what they are currently doing, the ad system could potentially pick up the key words and send all his or her friends a recommendation of a relevant product or service. Imagine you log on and send a message to your friends asking them where you should go to hang out and Universal immediately sends everyone an ad to the latest flick. It will be interesting to see if this type of targeting is perceived by the users as brands stalking them or providing them with more relevant and useful recommendations.