Facebook gets even more intrusive with planned newsfeed ad unit

Facebook gets even more intrusive with planned newsfeed ad unit

As Facebook readies up a new way to get ads into your news feed, Kipp thinks about just how difficult it is to monetize the internet.

August 15, 2012 5:34 by Eva Fernandes

Tech Crunch recently reported on Facebook’s plans to develop a new web and mobile advertising unit which allows brands to pay to have their posts appear in the news feed of their fans and non-fans alike. Prior to this feature a brand could only advertise to those who hadn’t subscribed to their updates through paid ads on the right hand panel. But this new policy will mean that even users haven’t opted for regular updates from a particular company, for a price a brand can ensure its presence on anyone’s news feed.

For now, the feature is still in BETA testing, but Facebook says it is being precarious about the development of this potentially intrusive form of advertising: “We want to be thoughtful about how we introduce ads in news feed, so we have limits in place to ensure that people’s news feeds are not filled with advertising, but we don’t have specific numbers to share.”

Of course, this issue just makes Kipp nostalgic of the age-old question: how do you successfully monetize the internet? Youtube has been trying to answer that question with varying levels of success, for years now. From Banner ads, to pop ups and now mandatory ads embedded in the video, the company surely can’t be faulted for being creative. Yet-just how lucrative is this advertising or the potential newsfeed advertising on Facebook? Only time will tell and though we aren’t too pleased about reading about Nike’s new line of walking shoes when we log on to Facebook, hey it could be worse-right?