New Facebook Sponsored Stories: Creative or Creepy?

Who else is a little uncomfortable about the new Facebook Sponsored Stories advertising format?  Sure, I’m all for transparency, but when it comes to a company paying for what I have said about them to be used in an ad, I feel…watched.  (Insert joke about a marketer worried about being monitored online here)

As of right now, there are only 4 types of actions within Facebook that can be sponsored:

• Likes
• Check-ins
• Actions within custom apps
• Page posts

Okay, I’ll admit: these are all opt-in actions.  Users are willingly choosing to speak out about these businesses.  However, many people may be doing so without realizing that they can be quoted as an advertisement.  Just like every time Facebook unveils a new profile or News Feed format, this could cause a subtle uprising of protest that hits everyone as they suddenly realize that their joke about Joe’s “Crab” Shack becomes the next ad campaign.

From an advertising standpoint, this is fantastic because now users can essentially create their own ads.  Sure, the businesses decide what to sponsor, but if the community has a general sentiment towards your company that you want to portray to others, there’s no more explaining to people that “Facebook users like us.”  Now, you can just quote the user and let them do the talking.  This is like Roger Ebert saying “Two thumbs up” instead of The Social Network saying “Roger Ebert says Two thumbs up!”

With the sometimes negative comments on Facebook about a brand, I wonder if anyone will have the ability to create sponsored stories.  For example, your competition is getting bad-mouthed; will you create a sponsored ad exposing the public’s negative view?  Bad business ethics, sure, but when have all businesses been honest?

I for one am excited to watch this new advertising format as it comes to fruition.  Let’s just hope that Sponsored Stories doesn’t become the New Coke of Facebook.

A “New (and Better) Google” Already Exists

After reading the TechCrunch article earlier titled “Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google”, I’ve come to the conclusion that it belittles everything that Google has become.

To summarize the article, written by Vivek Wadhwa, Google has turned into an oasis of pay-per-click advertisers and SEO juggernauts rather than a pure information aggregator that provides exactly what you’re looking for.  Thanks to the ever-producing fire hose of spam that is manned by corporations that are trying to work the search engine game, we are no longer able to get the information we need, but instead are subject to a wasteland of tailored advertising and Internet dead ends.

A new and better Google already exists.  Since the first meeting of Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1995, Google has become a massive, multi-national corporation that provides a search engine…and much more.  It is the “much more” that I want to discuss.

Google is not a search engine anymore.  Sure, they have search capabilities and when it comes to things like movie times, you can find the information without even leaving Google itself for another page.  But, people aren’t using Google in that way anymore.  They are using it for document management, calendars, video searches, news reading, RSS feeds, translations, books…the list goes on forever.  These tools are what make up Google and what it is today.  It’s so much bigger than a search engine and to disregard that would be disrespectful to all the hard work of the countless employees who make up that company.

Sure, Google may not be the best tool for hardcore research.  Why should it be?  Does no one remember that classmate in school who cited www.google.com as one of his or her sources in a class presentation?  It’s never been intended to be used as such.  If you are looking to find information on your cat’s urinary tract infection, then look no further than Google search results.  However, if you’re trying to find contact information for major business executives, expect some trouble.  That information isn’t intended to be plastered everywhere so why should we expect it to be right in front of us?

Understanding that Google is no longer a search engine is the first step to understanding why we don’t need a new and better Google.  And, I agree with Mr. Wahdwa: leave the hardcore research to the hardcore search engines like Blekko.

I’ll take my SEO wasteland (and calendar/document manager/translator/RSS reader) any day.