Treading the Social Landscape

TechCrunch reports on one of Facebook’s initiatives internally titled Project Beacon.  Read through the comments and you’ll find some paranoid folks concerned about privacy.  I’m not sure I’d be so concerned.  In this day of social networking and while we value our privacy, we must admit that a part of us desires to broadcast our activities.  We must further admit that we go to Facebook partly to know what others are doing.  Is it not fair to emanate our own activities as a small token to iew activities of others?  Call it a “walled garden” but the only people that would know what you purchased would be those who are your friends anyway!

Not to mention that Facebook would make it explicitly opt-in and allow you to actively decide whether or not you want your purchase activities viewable to others. 

Of course this is only have of what Project Beacon is about; the other half is to present more targeted advertising to you both on and off Facebook.  Again, let’s face it.  If we’re going to be presented ads, it would be fantastic if they were relevant at the very least.  Considering the ad click-through rates have been poor inside Facebook (people who are “inside” Facebook want to stay inside), there’s stuff happening there that could be quite helpful in the choices of ad networks in what would make a better creative display of ad space depending on who you are - or who you are likely to be.