JackYan.com
Jack and Aston Martin V8 Vantage Monaco street signs
Jack Yan: the Persuader blog
  Click here to go to home pageWhat I stand forMy stuffWhat others have recently saidMeet some of the coolest folks I knowDrop me a line Visit my workplace
> My stuff > The Persuader Blog


2.5.09

Facebook’s latest changes are also ill-advised 

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjamino/ has gone through another round of ill-advised changes over the past week.
   When someone “friends” you, you now have to put in the information about how you know one another when the invitation is accepted. If you forget to do this, there is no way you can make up for it later with Facebook’s new friends’ interface. Bad move on Facebook’s part—if your friend does not do this, or gets it wrong, then it’s too darned bad. You will have to advise your friend of the error, “unfriend” him or her, and go through the process again, if you want this information to be recorded accurately.
   Secondly, Facebook now based on where the user is. This, you think, might make sense. I argue that it does not, and I have often been an opponent of geo-targeting.
   When I look at an American print magazine, I see American —and I expect the same online. If I wanted domestic advertising, I’d browse a domestic site. The point is that I choose which jurisdiction I want to be sold from. It’s thanks to the absence of geo-targeting in the early days that I discovered many etailers to begin with, such as CD Now and Amazon.com.
   Prior to the latest change, Facebook fed advertisements to the user based on where the user said his or her location was. I had mine set to Göteborg, Sweden, because I felt the Swedish advertisements had more relevance to me than Kiwi auction ads for an iPod—especially considering that I am one of the last New Zealanders not on TradeMe or similar services. I also wanted to read Swedish ads to practise my comprehension of the language.
   I discovered this when travelling through India, having set my location to Hong Kong while I was there and forgetting to change it to New Delhi. While in India, Facebook still fed me Hong Kong ads. It made perfect sense to me, especially as I am a Hong Kong native. Some of us wouldn’t mind getting advertising from our home towns.
   Equally, a Kiwi living in the UK might just want to see Kiwi advertising when (s)he browses Facebook.
   It makes no difference to Facebook money-wise if it is being paid on CPM rates. However, if it wants to show better CTRs, or clickthrough ratios, then I suggest it return to the status quo ante.
   Finally, I spotted two new ‘Email notification’ entries that Facebook had added, and turned on without my permission. I advise Facebook users to go through their privacy settings: they will be in for a bit of a surprise.
   But Facebook has shown it seldom listens to the user base—its continues to show, with every move it makes. I write about this, but I don’t expect the company to do a thing about it.
Post a Comment  Links to this post

Comments:
Thanks for the heads-up on this, Jack. *scoots off to check Facebook privacy settings* I guess if it wasn't for angels like you (alerting us of Facebook's sneaky actions) - it would have gone unnoticed and we would all be sold for 10 cents! (Referrings http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/5/3/nation/3822236&sec=nation)  
Adeline, I took a screen shot of the privacy changes, but didn’t save it.
   In fact, I have just gone back to find out for you and despite my having turned them off, Facebook has turned them back on again!
   Go to ‘My Account’, then ‘Notifications’. The two fields are: (a) ‘Updates about Facebook product news’ and (b) ‘Invitations to participate in research about Facebook’.  
Sorry Jack - I just realised my typo error in the last comment. "Referrings" I meant "Referring 2" :)

Anyway, re:Facebook. It's a fact. THEY ARE SNEAKY. I remember turning on some privacy functions wayyy back during their the early Facebook days, but when I checked months later, it was auto-turned off too. I just got tired of it all, and have decided to take off some pics, limit the amount of personal info available on Facebook,etc.

If you're not in total control of the privacy functions, then we'll just have to do some self-censorship here ay.  
No worries about the typo—I figured that’s what you meant.
   I’m not surprised at our data being out there. It is where all the spam comes from and I remember that among the spam many years ago were CDs containing this very sort of information.
   Like you, I limit what I put on to Facebook. I just don’t trust it, and that’s bad for a brand.  
Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

 

 

Note

Entries from 2006 to the end of 2009 were done on the Blogger service. As of January 1, 2010, this blog has shifted to a Wordpress installation, with the latest posts here.
   With Blogger ceasing to support FTP publishing on May 1, I have decided to turn these older pages in to an archive, so you will no longer be able to enter comments. However, you can comment on entries posted after January 1, 2010.


Quick links

Surf to the online edition of Lucire
  • More ramblings at the Lucire Insider blog
  • The Medinge Group
  • Jack Yan for Mayor
  • My Facebook page
  • Follow me on Twitter
  • My Vkontakte page
  • Book me for public speaking
  • Contact JY&A Consulting on business projects
  • Check out fonts from JY&A Fonts
  • Add feeds




    Add feed to Bloglines

    Individual JY&A and Medinge Group blogs

  • Lucire: Insider
  • Summer Rayne Oakes
  • The Medinge Group press room
  • Detective Marketing
  • Amanda van Kuppevelt
  • Delineate Brandhouse
  • Paolo Vanossi
  • Nigel Dunn
  • Pameladevi Govinda
  • Endless Road
  • Avidiva news
  • Johnnie Moore’s Weblog
  • Steal This Brand Too
  • The Beyond Branding Blog
  • Ton’s Interdependent Thoughts
  • Partum Intelligendo
  • Right Side up
  • Headshift
  • Goiaba Brazilian Music
  • Jack Yan on Tumblr (brief addenda)

  • +

    Previous posts

  • We say they’re British, but Brown still defended h...
  • Twitter ratios of the rich, famous or arrogant
  • Post no. 1,000: the dangers of too many press rele...
  • Email to Facebook to Twitter—maybe the next step i...
  • Vista Print has two cool fonts on their systems, b...
  • Advertising up, and it’s not Adsense
  • It don’t matter if you’re left or right
  • ‘I can’t believe it’s a law firm!’
  • How not to be a publisher
  • Telecom hires robots, operators fired?


  • Donate

    If you wish to help with my hosting costs, please feel free to donate.