So what do the users think?
For those looking for the community response to interest-based ad serving, the answer may have to be a frustrating wait-and-see approach.
According to Barrett, he's heard no feedback (positive or negative) regarding MySpace's new advertising platform. Over at Facebook, there's been no rebellion ala the News Feed controversy of 2006. But then again, even Facebook isn't talking about interest-based ad serving, so why should anyone expect its users to set the net on fire with such a conversation?
In casual chats with a few friends, most of whom use MySpace and Facebook, I found ambivalence to the idea. Although I didn't ask, most of the people I spoke with responded by saying that they don't care (or think much) about the ads on either site. After all, they come primarily because their friends are there.
The majority of users admitted to a handful of inaccuracies on their pages, usually vindicating professor Dwyer's humor theory. To top it all off, all users seemed a little surprised that the information they provide on either MySpace or Facebook pages would be valuable to marketers. However, that's not so surprising when you consider the fact that only marketing professionals and officials at MySpace and Facebook see the sites as ad platforms.
If there's a bright spot, it's this: No one seemed annoyed that marketers might have access to their conversations (few see either site as truly private), and most seemed to think that getting ads based on things they really cared about would be a good thing.
But before marketers rush into the new frontier of interest-based marketing, Dwyer had some words of caution.
"Marketers should know that if it becomes apparent that they are mining data on these sites, there is the potential for a huge blowback," she explains. "If people feel exploited in any way, they will rebel and brands will have to deal with the damage."
Social networking sites also could suffer blowback from a crudely executed marketing campaign, Dwyer says. While gatekeepers of the print and TV mediums have always had to be careful about balancing user experience with advertising, Dwyer points out that the fickle nature of social network users, and the low opportunity cost of moving to another site, mean officials at MySpace and Facebook need to exercise an abundance of caution.
That's a concern that's foremost on Barrett's mind, who says that MySpace is committed to both explaining the benefits of interest-based targeting and allowing users to opt out.
Whether the data gleamed from interest-based targeting will be better than BT and search will be a question for another day. But it's one question MySpace (and perhaps Facebook) seem eager to answer.
<< Previous page
Michael Estrin is associate editor at iMediaConnection. Read full bio.
