Anybody stepping back from Facebook now that Microsft has a stake in Facebook ads?

[RAV TUX]

just curious?

[skwishybug]

Probably not. I don't do a lot of facebooking to begin with and it provides a means of keeping up with old friends.

If they took more of a stake (over 50%) I might start to reconsider. One reason I don't have a MySpace is the take over by Google. I don't like monopolies and far flung corporate empires.

[Phil Airtime]

I've never used Facebook.

[blastus]

One day it might be called "Windows Live Facebook"

[vambo]

Never stepped forward to it !!

[wieman01]

What's Facebook?

[tcpip4lyfe]

I like facebook. It keeps me in touch with people that I graduated from college with. I am not one of those people that puts my life story on it along with my address and phone number, though.

[Nano Geek]

What's Facebook?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

[potrick]

I actually think it's funny that Zuckerberg conned Microsoft into paying that much for so small a portion of the site.

[RAV TUX]

I actually think it's funny that Zuckerberg conned Microsoft into paying that much for so small a portion of the site.Zuckerberg is no fool! ;)

[JacobRogers]

Ad Blocker!

[sloggerkhan]

*Shrugs* I don't like facebook much, but I have a pretty empty profile to keep in touch with some friends. Not sure if a minute stake in it from MS is enough to remove my small presence. I didn't like it before anyway.

[Polygon]

One day it might be called "Windows Live Facebook"

the guy who owns facebook has turned down many multi-million (or maybe even billion) dollar offers from many companies saying he does not want to sell facebook to anyone

and notice he said ads. Ads that i dont see anyway due to adblock ;)

[RAV TUX]

the guy who owns facebook has turned down many multi-million (or maybe even billion) dollar offers from many companies saying he does not want to sell facebook to anyone

and notice he said ads. Ads that i dont see anyway due to adblock ;)good point, I was wondering why I never saw these ads.

[b0ng0]

Nah, I don't keep a massive amount of personal information (contact details anyway) on my Facebook page. It is rather disconcerting though - I think in the end these pages will just become databases for large companies to access for advertising and market research.

[Sp4cedOut]

I honestly don't care who owns the software I use. As long as it works well I'll keep using it.

[FG123]

No, that would be a knee-jerk response, assuming I used Facebook and wasn't using Adblock.

[Erdaron]

Between adblock, image blocking, and flashblock, I don't see many ads anyway. And I actually like facebook.


Nah, I don't keep a massive amount of personal information (contact details anyway) on my Facebook page. It is rather disconcerting though - I think in the end these pages will just become databases for large companies to access for advertising and market research.
That's what happened to MySpace when it was bought out by FOX.

[meborc]

hehehe... i'm happy using googles www.orkut.com :)... better google than microsoft

[RAV TUX]

hehehe... i'm happy using googles www.orkut.com (http://www.orkut.com) :)... better google than microsoft
I actually still use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family. ;)

[argie]

Facebook is horribly cluttered. I can never understand what's going on, there's just so much there. Or maybe I'm just stupid.

[adam.tropics]

Using AdBlock I don't see many ads, but in all fairness, I don't care who owns what, so long as it works, and represents value from a user perspective. Since it's free and provides a unified place to keep in touch with college friends and such, without abusing my inbox, I'm happy enough with it, so no, I'll be sticking with it for now.

[proalan]

Interesting isn't it, remember a few years back microsoft stopped an illustrious spammer?
Its ironic that microsoft has poked into social network sites such as digg and facebook to inject targeted adverts (aka spam).

I ain't a fan of how facebook is becoming do people really get a kick out of plugins like 'food fight'?
The site is poorly coded and heavily dependent on javascript.

[Phil Airtime]

Interesting isn't it, remember a few years back microsoft stopped an illustrious spammer?
Its ironic that microsoft has poked into social network sites such as digg and facebook to inject targeted adverts (aka spam).

I ain't a fan of how facebook is becoming do people really get a kick out of plugins like 'food fight'?
The site is poorly coded and heavily dependent on javascript.

Targeted adverts on sites you're browsing aren't my definition of spam. If that was the case, Google would be the biggest spammer of the lot. Spam is irritating unwanted email or IM, not web page content.

For what it's worth, I like targeted ads. They're a lot more useful to me than the old "You're our millionth visitor, win an iPod" rubbish and after shopping around, I've even bought a couple of things advertised by banner. How people think their favourite sites are going to stay in business if everyone uses AdBlock plugins is beyond me...

[the_darkside_986]

The local linux user group at my university uses Facebook for the group's website. I only signed up for facebook so I could join the facebook group.

I don't check it much and I don't go to the LUG meetings because they never schedule it at a reasonable time. I'd rather have a FreeBSD user's group who hosts their very own website using their own home server running FreeBSD.

[Tomosaur]

For what it's worth, I like targeted ads. They're a lot more useful to me than the old "You're our millionth visitor, win an iPod" rubbish and after shopping around, I've even bought a couple of things advertised by banner. How people think their favourite sites are going to stay in business if everyone uses AdBlock plugins is beyond me...

Well for one, it's not our problem. Many people find adverts annoying, and block them. It's not OUR job to keep the website in business, it's the web developers job to find a way of making enough money to stay online that doesn't irritate people.

Whiny webmasters are the worst ("Don't block my ads!"). It's YOUR job to make us want to invest in your website, not OUR job to put up with annoying adverts.

[Wiebelhaus]

Yes.

[regomodo]

One day it might be called "Windows Live Facebook"

that's when i'll leave. until then possibly not

[proalan]

For what it's worth, I like targeted ads. They're a lot more useful to me than the old "You're our millionth visitor, win an iPod" rubbish and after shopping around, I've even bought a couple of things advertised by banner. How people think their favourite sites are going to stay in business if everyone uses AdBlock plugins is beyond me...

You also in favor of the increasing viral adverts that 3rd party developers are bringing into the site?

Its becoming more e-commerce than social networking.

[Phil Airtime]

You also in favor of the increasing viral adverts that 3rd party developers are bringing into the site?

Its becoming more e-commerce than social networking.

I've no idea; I never use the Facebook. My only experience of "social networking" was when an old workplace had a MySpace page that I had to reply to comments on occasionally. Other than that, it doesn't interest me.

[Phil Airtime]

Well for one, it's not our problem. Many people find adverts annoying, and block them. It's not OUR job to keep the website in business, it's the web developers job to find a way of making enough money to stay online that doesn't irritate people.

Whiny webmasters are the worst ("Don't block my ads!"). It's YOUR job to make us want to invest in your website, not OUR job to put up with annoying adverts.

Where did you get the impression that I own a commercial website? I have a blog, but it doesn't run ads. Not enough people read it to make it worthwhile running advertising!

If people persist in blocking the more palatable banner and Google-style text advertisements, more and more insidious and irritating forms of advertising are going to be used by webmasters. Those double-underlined green links which pop up messages on rollover are cropping up in more and more places, for instance.

I would counter your point by saying that if you don't like the ads on a certain website, vote with your feet and stop visiting it. There are only so many ways to make money from web content, and the current banner model is far more acceptable than the alternatives, which include paid advertorial masquerading as content. A couple of local sites in the north of England do that, and it's not a good look.

[proalan]

your argument seems to side with the views of the author of this page

http://whyfirefoxisblocked.com/index1.php

What amazes me is that the author is trying to implicate the visitor being a thief for not looking (or for blocking) at the unwanted adverts.

I for one don't like the aggressive 'in your face' marketing strategies employed by any company online or in real life.

[beercz]

Its becoming more e-commerce than social networking.
It's all about "moneterising eyeballs"!

(I've been dying to say that!)

[graabein]

Never did sign up on facebook or myspace etc and I'm not going to either...

Microsoft sucks!!

[Hendrixski]

your argument seems to side with the views of the author of this page

http://whyfirefoxisblocked.com/index1.php

What amazes me is that the author is trying to implicate the visitor being a thief for not looking (or for blocking) at the unwanted adverts.

I for one don't like the aggressive 'in your face' marketing strategies employed by any company online or in real life.

You know, if you block a commercial you're stealing.
If you walk away from the TV during a commercial break, you are committing theft.
At least according to the President of Turner Media: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Kellner#Criticism

[Sawta]

How people think their favourite sites are going to stay in business if everyone uses AdBlock plug ins is beyond me...

I can't speak for the people that use Ad-Blocker, since I am an Opera use, but I can still speak on the subject somewhat, as I often use the "Block content" option on sites.

Yes, I do this quiet liberally, but I don't block all of them. If the owner of the website has gone to the trouble of making a customised, or at the very least, non-irritating or completely unrelated ads, I will leave them be. What decides what will stay and what will go is on the content of the website it's self, "Do they deserve to have me not block their websites ad's?" "Do they regularly stay up to date?" "Would I feel terrible if this website shut down?"

My best example of this thought process in action is Penny-arcade.com

You see, I have enough respect for the people that run it, and acknowledge that they have given me such a consistent amount of content over such an extended period of time that I will go to the trouble of making sure that their ad's aren't blocked by my browser. How many sites can you think of that deserve the same amount of admiration? I'm not trying to say that there's not a good amount of good content out there, but how much of it is "okay" and how much of it is great?

[Hendrixski]

I can't speak for the people that use Ad-Blocker, since I am an Opera use, but I can still speak on the subject somewhat, as I often use the "Block content" option on sites.


It is not our job to make sure that the corporations stay in business. That's the corporations job. And given the choice, they would rather stay in business than care about you. So why on earth would you care about them?

It's a free market. I'm free to do consume I want and to not consume what I don't want, and there's no amount of communist propaganda that's going to tell me otherwise.

[adityakavoor]

never ventured into FACEBOOK at all

[tlages]

That is ridiculous! Why would you stop using something because microsoft advertises in it? Just block the ads on their website.

[ardchoille42]

Yes, I step away from anything in which Microsoft is involved. They have a history of questionable business practices and a complete lack or morals.

You couldn't pay me to use their products.