You get a Facebook message from a friend, urging you to check out this video. You go there, and it's a YouTube phishing site (with your friend's facebook profile picture and name on it), which then urges you to update your Flash player. Don't do it — it fucks up your computer and then spams all your Facebook contacts (not sure exactly how it does that). But it's interesting that hackers are now using a supposedly "trusted" messaging platform such as Facebook to launch attacks

If the hackers' method sounds familiar — a third party attempts to get a user to click based on what looks to be the endorsement of a friend — that's because Facebook tried the same idea with Beacon last year. And it's trying it again with Engagement Ads, a new format coming this fall.

An example would be purchasing a ticket to a concert. Usually, a small subset of your friends would receive a notification of this action, however, in the future Cheryl Crow or Ticketmaster could pay for this to be distributed to your full friend group.

Kendall said Facebook will roll out the new plan in the next 6 to 12 months.

How's this different than Facebook's failed Beacon product? Not very. But we count at least three ways. For one, Facebook widgetmakers will be able to participate by serving the new Social Ads, though Kendall was light on details. For another: Marketers didn't pay to be a part of Beacon. They'll have to pay now. Finally, we're betting Facebook learned its lesson and will make it easy for users to opt in and out. We still say the best way for Facebook to turn its users into a team of product marketers 100 million strong would be to offer them a cut.

Have you heard anything about the problems Facebook is having with Social Ads? Today my company was undercharged about $225 for yesterday's ad spend. That's a good way to stay unprofitable.

The advertiser wonders: "Maybe somebody should tell Sheryl Sandberg that cutting company subsidies won't help if you can't accept money. "

Will Gawker start buying "Julia Allison" ads, to cement its ownership of that unhappy subject? Will Valley entrepreneurs buy their own names as keywords, to prevent rivals from doing so? Will we all eventually pay a tax to Google — advertise our side of the story, or let others tell us for it? All intriguing. While you muse over that, I'm going to start pricing out "Jason Calacanis" ads.

The answer:




























All are described as "not material" to Google's bottom line in SEC filings.

No such virtuous circle exists in television. As a substitute for clicks, Google has proposed tracking when TV viewers change channels during ads. But as the above example provided by Google suggests, no matter what the ad is or when it airs, 96 to 97 percent of the audience stays tuned in. It's not clear if those numbers are made up, but actual numbers may not prove that different. Studies from TiVo, supposedly the bane of all TV advertising, showed 40 percent of users don't bother to fast-forward through the ads. Outside of efficiency-obsessed Silicon Valley, commercial breaks just aren't that horrifying a notion.

Google's hoping to extract information from its television data, deriving some insights from channel-switching habits. But the information — do viewers care about the ads or not? — likely isn't there. Absent that, Google's systems have no way to refine themselves over time. All Google can promise, then, are cheaper rates for undesirable time slots — or, possibly, implementing technology that forces viewers to watch ads. No wonder TV executives are turning up their noses. Like the typical engineer, Google thinks it can do their job for them.

Facebook charged advertisers $300,000 a quarter for a sponsored group; its take from pay-per-click ads promoting Facebook pages is far less certain. But sponsored groups were sold by Facebook's small team of human salespeople; Facebook Pages ads are sold through an automated, self-service system akin to Google's AdWords.

Facebook's hire of Sheryl Sandberg, who oversaw AdWords at Google, was one sign Facebook would be betting on automated advertising. The abandonment of the lucrative sponsored groups is another.

Zuckerberg seems cocksure about the payoff from Social Ads. He has told employees that Facebook will bring in between $300 million and $350 million in revenue this year, a swift increase from last year, when revenues from sponsored groups sustained the company. He seems confident that change is coming. Perhaps so. But for the impatient young man, who will turn 24 in 12 days, will it come fast enough?

The whole idea behind free Facebook Pages for musicians, business and brands is to get them in the door, get them hooked, and get them to pay for ads to promote their page. Don't expect Ping Pong Music to open their wallet anytime soon now. "It just upsets me a little to think they could let this happen," our source tells us.

"VideoEgg is the bait and switch. CPM is bullshit, and [Facebook's] Social Ads are bullshit," said Mark Pincus during a panel on Facebook applications at the annual Game Developer's Conference. Pincus said he was lucky to get 5 cent CPMs on his apps. What Pincus didn't mention: His competitors at Social Gaming Network are making at least $100,000 a month from their Warbook application — all from VideoEgg-run advertising campaigns.

The idea of targeting ads to willing customers is not wholly flawed. HotorNot founder James Hong points out that more than 32,000 860,000 Facebook users have declared Starbucks "hot" on his company's Facebook HotLists application. Not shabby at all, but even then, that hasn't hit mass-audience status. Let's say Starbucks advertised to every single one of those users and got them into a coffee shop every day? It still wouldn't really move the needle on sales.

And if Starbucks visits are on the decline, does Starbucks want to preach to the converted — or reach new customers who don't already identify with the brand? Perhaps Starbucks should buy ads that are targeted to people who aren't its fans. Or here's an idea. How about an old-fashioned TV campaign? Last I checked, almost the entire population of the U.S. watches television, while only two-thirds are online.

Political blog Daily Kos asks ad-blocking users to buy a subscription. Technologist Nick Carr says that Google and other ad servers should ignore ad-blockers and bet that the habit won't become popular. The New York Times only teaches the controversy. How about you — got a good excuse for why you block ads, or a good reason that you don't?

["Ethicist" image stolen from this blog]

It's a deal similar to the one Facebook signed with Microsoft last year.

Google is, of course, an ad company. All but a negligible slice of Google's revenue comes from advertising, and Google is expanding its ad business (into newspapers and radio) as it trims its product line, consolidating its engineering work. The press pays attention to Google's ad business, but only from the deal side. When it's time to run a "corporate culture" article, everyone flocks to Google's engineering department, where they're greeted by engineers with Mouse Trap contraptions on their desks — and perky VP Marissa Mayer, who apparently holds 14 meetings a day in between 14-hour e-mail marathons.

Do ad salesfolk get 20% of their time to do personal projects? (Granted, word is that even engineers don't really get that any more.) Are advertising experts told they're special people running the world? Did Larry Brilliant ever chastise Wired for doubting the excellency of advertising professionals as he did in this exchange?

Are engineers really the best source for solutions to the world's biggest problems? I hope that you'll put in that Wired questioned the value of engineers.

And while the best engineers may be quirky, adorably camera-shy nerds beloved by TV interviewers, the best ad salespeople aren't so cuddly. (They're rumored to be hotter, for one — no homely "love ya like a brother" charm needed here.)

They're not the only ones making Google slicker, of course. Co-founder Larry Page himself looks pretty L.A. when he's hanging at swanky San Francisco parties. Even his girlfriend, Lucy Southworth, is looking blonder and tanner than those old Stanford photos. The whole fights over king-sized beds in Larry and co-founder Sergey Brin revealed the boys' more extravagant side too.

So next time a lazy reporter pulls the old "Hollywood Yahoo vs. Silicon Valley Google," remember who brings the money into the supposedly nerdy company — a team of slick salespeople with a slick former nerd at the helm.

Hewlett-Packard press relations: Invent.
AT&T records department: Your world. Delivered.
Google Romance: We throw it against the wall and see what sticks.
AOL search records: I am.
Yahoo China: Everyone's Yahoo changes.
Sony batteries: This is living.

There, now we know how it feels to write headlines for the New York Times tech section.

Spotted at Technorati [Front page]

That's part of Apple's plan to break into online advertising. In a deal that should bring in several hundred million dollars off the bat, the company will run ads, most notably on its iTunes store.

To handle all this, Apple's secretly hunting for an ad sales director. Industry stars, polish your resum s.

Microsoft Devil Woman w/ horns + whip (from Visual Source Safe) [Reddit]

When the little dot-coms blow up, says marketing/PR blogger Steve Rubel, the sites funded by their advertising will go under too. Rubel names social news site Digg as one potential victim. How does it stack up against other Web-2.0-supported sites? Above the fold, we analyze Digg and tech blog GigaOM. Below, GigaOM competitor TechCrunch sets off a red alert.

Digg: Low risk

• Top banner ad: A boring invention licensing company ad, served up by Google ads. It may be stupid, but it's not under the threat of a little dot-com crash.
• Side ads: Contextual Google ads related to specific stories. Yawn.
• Bottom: In-house ad for Digg merch. Safe as houses.

GigaOM: Moderate risk

• Sponsor #1: oDesk. Motto: "So 2.0 it hurts." Can you say "high risk"? I knew you could.
• Sponsor #2: A promotion for GigaOM through partner Bix, a Web 2.0 contest-creation site. Oh yeah, this one's doomed. High risk.
• Inter-entry ad #1: JotSpot, a wiki company that came on the radar this January and just may last through a crash. Risk: Moderate.
• Banner #1: Google ads. As always, no risk there.
• Banner #2: Business.com sponsored links, mostly for Voice over IP. Minor risk if eBay kills Skype or Vonage finally crashes.
• Inter-entry ad #2: More damn Google ads.

TechCrunch: High risk

• Sponsor #1: Text Link Ads, which would survive a Web 2.0 crash with minor damages.
• Sponsor #2: LogoJeez, a prime service for startups building a brand. Major bubble risk.
• Sponsor #3: Logoworks. Same thing.
• Sponsor #4: Flock, a "Web 2.0 browser" and one of the most-mocked startups, though it actually has a business plan. Moderate bubble risk.
• Sponsor #5: Adobe Flex, a platform for "rich Internet applications." Read: "We want startups as customers." Major bubble risk.
• Sponsor #6: Edgeio, the distributed classifieds site. Major bubble risk, even if loyalty to Edgeio co-founder and TechCrunch owner Michael Arrington keeps it loyal to the bitter end.
• Side banner #1: Adobe Flex again. Major risk again.
• Side banner #2: Google headhunting ad. No risk at all — Google's way outside the, um, bubblesphere.

Valleywag: Doomed

• Since no one directly advertises with Valleywag now, why would they later?

The Web 2.0 Economic Conundrum [Steve Rubel]
Photo by Jeff Kubina [Flickr]

When this microsite's signup page popped up, we realized: someone on the ad team is copping Apple's classic pretentious ad style. "We'll let you know when it's time," they say, as if they're Willy Wonka hiding the glass elevator.

Not For Noobs [viral page]
What is NotforNoobs.com? [Addicted to Digital Media]

Activists attack Apple with a Mac Spoof [Mac Spoofs]

On the other, this is the most oblique ad campaign to ever hit the blogosphere. Alltel is running spoof ads urging people to sue it. The ads link to a fake legal site filled with background that has nothing to do with Alltel.

The spoof anti-site is a tired reverse-psychology viral marketing trick, but in Alltel's case, it's carried out to ridiculous lengths, with a roster of fake web pages long enough to impress the Lost marketers or Da Vinci Code alternate-reality gamers.

The spoof pages are funny — the references to the "ever-encroaching Acronym Industry," "Melaninally-Challenged Americans v. TAN-acious Sunless Creme, Inc." and "increased national standards for elasticity in gentlemen's dress socks" make the site read like an early draft for a Douglas Adams novel.

But what good is this to Alltel? After all the jokes, readers haven't actually been pitched anything — and that's fine by me.

Alltel Spoofs Itself in Online Ads, But Not Everyone Gets the Joke [WSJ]

New Yahoo Campaign [Yahoo]
Earlier: New Yahoo homepage: What's your call?

No.

Madison Avenue meets Silicon Valley [CNNMoney.com]

It's part of HP's desperate campaign to look cool, along with ads featuring Jay-Z and sponsorship of an MTV reality show. (In "Meet or Delete," says the Times, "young people decide whether they want to date potential suitors based on the contents of their hard drives." Thrilling.)

HP hopes to "tell a story" instead of selling computers as a commodity. Too bad that story is just an urban legend.

Hewlett-Packard Takes a New Tack: Being Cool [NYT]

Well, according to ComingZune.com, Microsoft's new "Zune" product is all about men molesting bunnies while Regina Spektor sings. (Yeah, before you click that at work, switch to headphones.)

This much-hyped media player just may have to polish its branding if it truly wants to be the iPod killer. All the hipsters this weirdo page is targeting are already happy with their Nanos, thank you.

Coming Zune [scary flash page]

BoomYEAH commercial [YouTube]

Today in unfortunate ad placement news: A CNET story on Intel employees working during the missile attacks in Israel. Below it, Intel compares its hardware and software to, well, a missile.

To be fair, those contextual ads for hotels in Haifa don't look too smart either.

Intel Haifa staff work among the chaos [CNET]

Hint to Microsoft: In your online ads, try not to have the stock-photo guy real MSN employee laugh nervously at all your available job options.

• New York-based e-mail startup Daily Candy gets a sweet deal: an investment valuing the company at $130 mil, which lets the company take down its "For Sale" sign and get back to the important business of making urban women feel inadequately shoed. [Gawker, link being fixed]
• So some big-city bloggers had a party for Six Apart's new Vox blogging service, right? And some guys sat in a hot tub on the roof? And probably someone called this the bubble? Hon, it's not a bubble until what's in the hot tub can get you drunk. Anyway, click through for topless shots of Gawker Media managing editor Lockhart Steele. [Teen Drama]
• Damn it, Gawker's stealing all the tech news today. As our catty sister notes, the New York Times is proud to name-drop Dodgeball.com founder Dennis Crowley, the man responsible for every New Yorker and San Franciscan constantly updating their friends on how drunk they're about to get. [Gawker]
• Pictured: The Times also uses a photo illustration to remind everyone of those wild days of free drink coasters for all. [NYT]
• Mooching off the "Get a Mac" commercials: You can make a clever parody or a creepy knock-off ad. (Please make the parody.) [iLoad]

Highlight: When, twenty seconds after complaining about "lots of forms, not to mention those user names and passwords" on other stores, the announcer shows the form (with a user name and password) for Google Checkout.

Google Checkout Video Tour [Google Video]

Behavioral marketing seeks to deploy mechanisms like Web video and interactivity to reach an increasingly fragmented audience with messages that are at once entertaining enough to penetrate young consumers' ad immunity but not so in-your-face that those consumers instantly recoil.

MySpace's innovative marketing strategy, in action on MySpace.com:

How Fox Interactive got so sly [Business 2.0]

The tiles that flew from the sky are order from a Chinese emperor for catching wanted people. The word "jua" that accompanied each flying tile means "to catch" or "to search" in Mandarin.

The guy who received the tiles is the old time police who is in charge of catching (searching) wanted people. The people caught are different "famous" ancient Chinese characters (real or in fictions). One was a thief, one was a woman who was caught having an affair, etc., and the Caucasian of course is James Bond.

The ending tag line said "with Baidu, you can 'find' whoever you want to search for" and the end titles talked about how many Chinese web sites Baidu has on their database, etc. (talking about Baidu's search capability).

Cheeky! But an honest representation of that down-n-dirty style Baidu showed by ratting out Google in China. Life's more fun when your motto is "Be evil."

After the jump, another copy of that ad.

Earlier: What does this Chinese Baidu ad mean? [Valleywag]