Why should Facebook, its advertising partners, and application developers be the only ones to be able to make money from spamming your friends with ads and come-ons? Today, Ads-Click launched a private beta called MicroSocialAds that will let you get in on the advertising frenzy by inserting targeted, contextual text ads into your Facebook page. (As if Beacon wasn’t bad enough). Every time your friends click through to that Dell laptop or natural Viagra ad, you will get paid 80 percent of the ad! You may also find yourself without any friends. But, hey, at least you will be richer for it. Marginally. (Disclosure: Ads-Click is a TechCrunch sponsor and our TechCrunch France editor, Ouriel Ohayon, sits on its board).
The ads on Facebook will appear as a line of text no more than 35 characters long. They are designed to be as unobtrusive as possible, are highly targetable by interest, and allow people to opt out of them. Ads-Click will match each ad from its network of more than 200,000 advertisers. The MicroSocialAds will be added to people’s profile pages just like any other Facebook application. (Again, the private beta just launched, so you won’t find this by searching Facebook’s application directory just yet). Explains Ads-Click CEO Pascal Rossini
We take the same approach as a company like AdBrite who already does this on Facebook, or any other app that uses AdSense. The only difference is that we remunerate the users and not the app owner.
Fair enough. But this is sure to be controversial on many levels. First and foremost, anyone who adds such an app to their Facebook page would appear to be in direct violation of Facebook’s terms of use, which unequivocally state:
In addition, you agree not to use the Service or the Site to . . . upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;
On the other hand, Facebook is built on the backs of its users. They supply most of the content and activity. Why shouldn’t they get a cut of the advertising generated from their personal Facebook page—or MySpace or Bebo page, for that matter?
In fact, MicroSocialAds are not limited to Facebook. The personal ads also work with MSN Messenger, and will soon be available on Twitter, Yahoo IM, Skype, and OpenSocial. If you have no problem spamming your friends, or if the ads could be micro-targeted by you to the point where they don’t feel like ads, but more like personal product suggestions, then they might actually work out. The concept, though, certainly blurs the line between the social and the commercial. They need to be social enough so that they are palatable to the people expected to add them to their social communications, but commercial enough that they offer a return for advertisers.
What do you think? Does this represent the next stage in personalized advertising, or is it offensive?
Hmm, i think they are a little too aggressive.Is ok to diplay some adds and make some money but i think they push it too far(or maybe not - depends on how much money you make :)) … )
Hmm, won’t last long I think. Facebook have repeatedly said that they do not allow advertising on profile pages. The fb developer team have shut down ideas like this before and will no doubt do it again.
I can imagine the wall for this application once the application is released. Besides, if the App gains notoriety, who’s going to click? How’s that going to affect CTR?
Short Lived.
Then again, you can get your 700 friends to click through. But what happens after that?
I hope this gets shutdown fast. What an annoyance it would be to receive 500 ads from my friends.
sincerely,
angela hayden
art goddess
They are based in Geneva Switzerland and their platform is currently not open to the public for advertising. In its current form they are really just another SEM firm.
If they can get the average Joe to take advantage of affiliate type marketing and share the revenue this would work really well. I would love to be able to place relevant contextual ads on facebook and share the revenue with the users as long as the stuff converts.
The app is against the FB Platform TOS! It won’t last long …
This does represent a next stage in personal advertising. There have been talks of opening up social graph because after all, information of a user belongs to user. It may violate TOC, and facebook may even succeed in blocking these kind of ads, but these kind of ads are future only because it is content, unpublished but content neverthless. And with line blurring between content and publishing with services like Twitter, advertising would trickle in to social networking.
Completely offensive!
Any “friend” that does this is automatically de-friended!
Can someone write an app for that? Scan my friend’s pages, if this is found, remove from friend list.
Sooo mean! Morally and socially it sounds completely wrong. Spamming your friends for money…unbelievable. lets see if users will boycott this idea.
Eventually it can be like for every line of comment, scrap, testimonial, or suggestion I make there will be a line of ad attached to it, so that anyone reading my comment will have to search for it!
Click here for some more fun
No way I am getting richer by loosing all my friends!
Make money by doing XYZ - jump start your career
Something like above - If this comment will make it through the spam listings
Tired of all the spamming - try this!!
I don’t see the point of this. In theory it sounds great but all it does is lower the value of a social network. Social networks online follow the same rules that social networks in real life follow. Sure a hot chick can have 1000 friends…but what influence does she really have on them?
If someone decides they want to “monetize” via their friends on facebook it will have similar results as people in real life that get involved in Amway or other pyramid schemes. No one wants to be their friend.
If a user’s intention is to “advertise” to their friends in order to make money then I don’t see it working. If it’s more of a natural referral system then I think it could work. But the BEST referrals are the ones which don’t have payouts…and that’ll never changed.
It had a chance of surviving for a few weeks, but I give it a day or two now that TechCrunch has covered the startup.
Facebook will definitely ban/suspend members who are using this service. With that said, most college students and young professionals would never do anything to jeopardize their account, and that includes using this application. It will never catch on.
Nice concept though…
This is one of those Facebook Applications that Facebook will eventually just do themselves. Nice concept, would be cool if it works, but definitely some large barriers.
i will delete whoever who do this to me. No more friends. why don’t you just ask, i will give you a quarter.
Facebook most likely banned MicrosocialAds.
If Microsoft and facebook saw MicrosocialAds. They would get piss off for losing people online. They would sue them. LOL. Imagine, this happens.
@ 14, “why don’t you just ask, i will give you a quarter.”
Hahaha, Great point.
Ah…this wont last.
http://tubeurl.com/freemusic
A crappy company like this will NEVER gain traction on such an idea.
what would ppl really think when they start a company? is it because “lets do it, since we lure some stupid VC to pay my bills neway”?
I’m not sure who comes up w/these biz plans but any user thinking about using this should quickly realize that 80% of CPMs (cost per *thousand* page views) in the below $1 level means a whole lot of nothing for any individual. On the aggregate, *IF* these guys got a lot of people using this service, there *might* be some money. Pascal clearly doesn’t understand the economics of apps on Facebook versus user profile page views. He’ll learn
Erick,
I’ve been working with some people on developing a couple of cause-supporting applications. One of them supports AIDS research.
Using advertising on the profile page was the initial idea we had in mind. And even though it was “approved” by the user (since they’ve installed the app) and would have been contextual, it was clearly against the facebook TOS.
This raises a question about the broadness of the TOS and ad-placement prohibitions in it. Although spamming friends with random ads dilutes the value of the network, displaying relevant ads on your own profile should be perfectly legal.
Profiles are undoubtedly the juiciest part of the facebook experience in terms of eye balls (does anyone have stats on profile box vs canvas page views?) and its only logical that facebook will move to protect its exclusivity on those areas, either technologically or legally (via TOS).
It will be interesting to see how this company’s attempt plays out.
This is a classic case of a small startup not consulting lawyers before they develop an application that clearly violates the TOS of another site. Or maybe they have really smart lawyers who have figured out a way to get around Facebook’s TOS. We’ll consult the TC Deadpool in a week to find out.
Have to say I’m somehow not surprised. There will always be something new and annoying with social networks since they are immaturely natured. Hmm that was bold, no?
Rule 34a: There is spam of it. No exceptions.
I consulted on the project. It’s brilliant, just you wait and see.
What a terrible idea… classic example of some suits completely out of touch with users.
……..and so the fall of Facebook begins
If this doesn’t get shut down by the FB team by the end of the day, I will be really surprised. What a stupid ass idea.
i guess next thing is, your friend send ad email to you, if you read the email. ur friend get paid?
i am already working on it.
P-Air @ 21 …I’ve seen estimates of total Facebook monthly page views range from 14 billion to 66 billion. Taking the average of these two and assuming that 50% of page views are from profiles, and assuming an effective CPM of $0.10 from this service, and given 60 million active users a month, then the average Facebook user would get ~$30 a month in revenue…nothing that will change their world but not bad for easy money, assuming, as many have mentioned, that they have any friends left after installing the ads
From a corporate standpoint it’s interesting. Why should anyone build anything that makes money off the user’s backs without them being able to benefit as well? I prefer this over Beacon telling the world my online habits.
How about they just let users choose which ads they want to show on their pages since this ad by being on their page has their tacit approval?
From a user standpoint, I’d be fine (so long as I can opt out) but you know in new york minute some will abuse it. Then you’re left in the awkward position like I am re. this woman I met when she volunteered at our conference a long time ago (which was great) but now sends me these jokes non-stop. I’m too polite to ask her to stop, but I hate getting them.
The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson!
these ads will never be perfectly targeted to the user - Ads click has crappy ads, i tried it on my site. So unless you feel your friends need viagra or netflix , I’d keep away. I am sure no would earn much from this anyway
Absolutely offensive.
I would consider anyone who allowed ads in their profile or especially in IM conversations to be presuming on a friendship. Imagine if you were talking to someone and every time you mentioned a product name or something you like to do, they’d toss some sales pitch at you. I know I’d stop talking to that person quickly.
It doesn’t matter how targeted an ad is, if I needed something I still wouldn’t trust the opinion of someone who advertises for their own gain. There’s a difference between that and a recommendation.
I think they have been beta testing this app in the TC forums.
reminds me of a company with the unfortunate name of “epidemic” who tried the same formula, but with ads embedded in email, back in 1999. They were the ones with the superbowl commercial that said “we just wasted 3 million dollars on this commercial”. The company went bust shortly after
The only good thing about this stupid startup is that someone is trying to help users get paid for all the work they do building these social networks. I knew this was going to happen and social networking will go down in flames because of it. IF… there is a solution to the underlying problem of not giving any value to the users, this is definitely a step in the wrong direction. This begins the mass exit of social networking into a new platform. I hope the next generation of web developers are paying attention because their opportunity is NOW!
I did not get this. How many page views or CTR can generate a single person from his actions on the web, profile views etc? The payout should be really high. This is embarrassing.
A user who has accepted this probably desperate for money, and his friends will probably be like him. What kind of an advertiser targets this audience…
With spam promotion it can kill students and college graduate who can’t find jobs. For example, send resume to company and telemarket calls. How does he/she can pick up phone calls? MiicrosocialAds…Why are you doing this?
Are you same publisher who bully 13 year old suicide kid?
show me the money!
Paid to spam!
UH!
fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
MicroSocialAds sounds like robot spam.
People listen up and maybe this will help you understand something important.
I ALREADY HAVE A PATENT ON THIS AND EVEN CREATED IT BETTER.
It’s called Blip’d and it’s VERY REAL AND VERY COOL. blipd.com
Blip’d can put the PAYPAL STOREFRONT WIDGET INSIDE A YOUTUBE VIDEO RIGHT NOW. View demo at: myspace.com/iamghettogates
WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY would Techcrunch write about Ad-click robot spam and they are blind to how I could:
1. Make money from ANY flash video legally!
2. Use Mouse-activate media blips instead of spam ads?
3. INSTANTLY VIEW MY VIRAL VIDEO GROWTH DAILY
4. The video creator chooses media to attach to video *from* *Friends* and *Fans*
SNOCAP, PAYPAL etc… This works NOW in MYSPACE inside a YOUTUBE VIDEO
In 2 minutes! NO programing. No waiting. No BS.
Soon, EVERYONE IS GOING TO GET BLIP’D!
Ghetto Gates is on the rise… so… rise uP!
Mike - Contact me at the number from the site.
–GG
Offensive.
That is just awful…I don’t have a superwall because I noticed that a lot of “forwards” aka spam get passed around along with a lot of useless information. We already get so much advertising everywhere and my Facebook page should be a place for me to keep in touch with other people, not offend them by sending them advertisements. Sorry, but sending advertisements to people you keep in contact with is not the same thing as sharing a funny link or photo that you enjoy.
Wow, this is just dumb, now people will look foward to spamming and sending messages to friends.
“Disclosure: Ads-Click is a TechCrunch sponsor and our TechCrunch France editor, Ouriel Ohayon, sits on its board”
huh..At least our PayPerPost bloggers do not spam their readers. When Ads-Click can be your sponsor, why cannot PayPerPost be one???
Sounds like an open invitation to those Russian hackers who know how to place tens of thousands of fake profiles on social networking sites.
What, Facebook users haven’t come across them yet? They will….
Thanks for your comments!
I am very happy to have had all this feedback in order to considerably improve this solution’s beta version. I would like to remind you that we supply numerous advertising solutions (white label, ads-exchange, etc…), and that microsocial ads are for us the opportunity to enter one of the most promising markets in terms of individual targeting.
-Facebook is one of many social platforms where Microsocial ads will be available
-We know that the Facebook’s terms of service are against us, but hundreds of running applications are exactly like ours.
-Users will be able to opt out, to choose vertical interest categories, frequency, so no SPAM.
-Microsocial ads will be available on other platforms, and all revenues will be incorporated, making them higher.
-We will be very attentive to user feedback, as we wish to create a high quality platform in beta phase.
Thanks again for sending us your comments via TechCrunch!
Pascal Rossini, CEO of Ads-Click
Blogs are a useful and fast way to attract traffic for our pages. The United States Army Corps of Engineers provide service to the armed forces and the general public in the engineering services and capacities for the benefit of the nation. The professional Development Support Center (PDSC) offers courses in various subjects ranging from civil engineering, architecture, project management and administrative skills.