AllFacebook - Latest Comments in Facebook Beacon: Time to Start Asking Questions

Re: Facebook Beacon: Time to Start Asking Questions

Matthieu Moyse — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:54:39 -0000

This issue seems to question a lot of people, including European Council... http://uk.reuters.com/article/technology-media-...

Re: Facebook Beacon: Time to Start Asking Questions

Nick O'Neill — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:33:40 -0000

Eric,

That's hillarious that you say Mark Zuckerberg will start dating Paris Hilton. For some reason I don't see that happening, but you never know!

Best,
Nick

Re: Facebook Beacon: Time to Start Asking Questions

jptrenn — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:48:43 -0000

Nick

I'd have to say that yes, this is going to be a huge problem. If you've already talked to a few people who didn't get or see the box, then that means it's happening everywhere to a lot of people. A commenter on Charlene's blog said she asked her babysitter about a coat she bought - freaking the sitter out.

When we buy stuff from a retailer we do so in part because of our relationship with the retailer. That relationship doesn't include Facebook. And sometimes we buy things that we don't anyone to know about. Simply put, Facebook Beacon is wrong.

Here's a blog post I wrote about it:

http://marketingconversation.com/2007/11/24/fac...

Re: Facebook Beacon: Time to Start Asking Questions

jsloss — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 12:41:47 -0000

Beacon provides no value to the everyday user. Instead of adding to a users experience, it adds usless information that users don't care about. Trust, reliability and relevance of information are cornerstones of Facebook's success.

If they start flying in the face of these principals, they run the risk of alienating a large portion of thier user base. Peter's suggestions to make beacon opt in and to give users a reason to use it, and make it FAR more valuable to the company in the long run.

Re: Facebook Beacon: Time to Start Asking Questions

E Dewhirst — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:00:04 -0000

Hey Nick,

For sure they have crossed over the line. Zuckerberg was a great poster boy for the new Web 2.0 economy and do no evil generation. However it feels like he has hired body guards and has crossed over to the dark side. I would not be surprised if he started dating Paris Hilton. The Facebook pendulum has started to swing the other way - prior to Beacon half the users hoped that Facebook was not profiling them and the other half had no idea what that meant. Now everyone knows they are profiling them and everyone is not so keen. Add to the mix the cozying up with Microsoft and you got the guilty by association thing happening.

Glad you write on this stuff Nick - it needs to be talked about. They can turn this ship around by pulling the plug right now and saying - "whoaaa what were we thinking!" and the users will go Yeah! That red headed dude cares about little old me!

Cheers,

Eric

Re: Facebook Beacon: Time to Start Asking Questions

Hashim Warren — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 11:49:33 -0000

Part of the problem with Beacon is that it has to be aggressive in order to justify Facebook's insanely high valuation. Is Facebook really considering user experience when they have an opt out box that disappears after a few seconds?

An alternative for Facebook's advertising would be to charge for advanced features, like an email client and dating tools. This wouldn't make Facebook a multi-billion dollar company, but at least it would remain a helpful tool with less of a privacy trade off.

That's the "don't be evil" road Craigslist blazed, and I'm sorry to see so few other web companies do the same.