I wonder how many people’s Facebook profiles look like mine. I admittedly don’t use Facebook much at all, but I can’t imagine anyone filling in a form like that. Perhaps back in web 1.0…. but not now. Even if users get over the “cold start”, you’re left with a static, binary, decaying set of interests. This is why the “Like” button is so important to Facebook’s plans to build up a comprehensive ‘interest graph’ for all of its users.
One of Steve Yelvington’s “Ten good-enough predictions about tech, media and news”.
I’m hearing this point a lot recently.
Martin Nisenholtz, the SVP for digital operations at The New York Times Company, recently identified ‘identity’ as one of the fundamental building blocks for engagement, and acknowledged that identity doesn’t just mean real names but a track record based on a lot of input.
Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg has previously listed the shift from anonymity to real identity as one of the four “shifts” taking place among web users.
With more and more startups relying on identity and reputation (e.g. Quora), I suspect we’ll see a lot more buzz in this space.
via Morgan Stewart’s Dear [Insert First Name Here] on MediaPost
A few weeks old but I totally agree with the sentiment…. adding a name to an email doesn’t make it personalized or relevant (since pretty much every spammer does that these days), the way to make emails valuable to people is to make content relevant to their interests.
via Twitter blog post announcing their new t.co URL shortener.
This move further highlights Twitter’s increasing focus on understanding what users are interested in and providing more relevant suggestions / recommendations.
Good analysis by Chris Dixon of difference between intent harvesting ads (think Google text ads) and intent generating ads (think majority of display ads), and how Facebook’s Like button (and the associated interest data that can be inferred from people ‘liking’ things) position Facebook to dominate the display advertising space.
Big news today from Facebook about its plans to infiltrate the web with its ‘Like’ buttons to further capture user’s “Interest Graph”.
Read more at Business Insider, PaidContent and Techcrunch.
I’m a business / finance and technology junkie…. at least according to Google’s Ad Preferences Manager. To be fair, its a pretty accurate assessment and should, although I can’t say I’ve noticed, mean that AdWords advertisers are able to target campaigns to my interests when I visits sites in the Google Content Network.
In contrast, Yahoo’s Ad Interest Manager (which I mentioned in a previous post) has me pegged only as a generic ‘sports fan’. While that is also accurate, its not very specific (since I only really follow the Miami Heat basketball team).
Why the difference? I guess the sites I use for my business / finance and technology news are more likely using Google AdWords, whereas the sites I use for my basketball news are using Yahoo Advertising.
My Newstogram profile which reflects my reading habits on DailyMe.com (and other sites in the Newstogram Network) shows a much more accurate and rounded view of my interests and preferences (but of course of would say that).
You don’t need a business plan. You don’t need to have an MBA. All you need is a great idea. Anything is possible and you can accomplish it.
- Ron Conway
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1 year ago
