Google, MySpace: unholy ad alliance
p2pnet news view | Advertising:- Google and MySpace have come together in a cynical pact to further exploit their mutual users.
“By loosening their grip on the personal information stored on their owns sites, both MySpace and Facebook are vying to shape and steer even more social interaction than they already do,” says the Associated Press.
“In the process, they hope to become the command centers of their users’ online activities. By extending their networks on to other sites, Facebook and MySpace also could emerge as more alluring marketing vehicles, particularly as they glean more information about the interests of individual users.”
MySpace and Google exist solely to force unwanted advertising down the throats of uncooperative users to the ultimate benefit of shareholders — and for that purpose only.
What it boils down to is: they’ve teamed up because they think they’ve found a way to corral their mutual users so data which should remain personal and private can instead be used as advertising fodder, and to herd ‘members’ to sites in which G & MS have a pecuniary interest.
So far, despite years of effort and the expenditure of millions of dollars, Google and Myspace, as well as Facebook and other similar enterprises, have been blocked at virtually every pass as they’ve tried get their greedy hands on these priceless data, all the while pretending their efforts are for the benefit of users.
But they never give up and this time, “MySpace.com is teaming up with Internet search leader Google Inc. in a campaign to extend MySpace’s reach and counter the expansion of their common rival Facebook Inc,” says AP, going on:
“The alliance, unveiled late Monday in Paris, builds upon MySpace’s seven-month-old effort to make it easier for the 127 million worldwide users of its online hangout to connect with their social circles while they’re at other Internet destinations.
“MySpace is trying to pull it off by making its login system, called ‘MySpaceID,’ compatible with any Web site that wants to embrace it.”
Can you say Beacon?
It was/is a devious Facebook system developed ostensibly to allow users to share online activities with each other, but which in fact gathers data to be used for targeted advertising.
“Facebook offers more integrated advertising opportunities to engage your target audience,” it promises marks, stating, “We look forward to working with you and seeing your marketing initiatives come to life on Facebook.”
So how much does this kind of help cost?
It starts at $25,000.
“Google is keenly interested in tapping into the advertising potential of social networks, but the Mountain View-based company has had little success with its own online hangout, called Orkut,” says AP, adding:
“MySpace already relies on Google to sell some of its ads, so the companies are natural allies.
“Palo Alto-based Facebook, in contrast, has aligned itself with Microsoft, perhaps Google’s biggest antagonist. Besides relying on Microsoft to sell some of its ads, Facebook also sold a 1.6 percent stake to the software maker for $240 million last year.
“Facebook also has rankled Google by hiring some of its top employees. The defectors include Facebook’s current chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, who oversaw global online sales.”
And it’s all to get you to pay attention.
Can you say ’shape and steer’?
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Associated Press – MySpace teams up with Google to connect more users, December 8, 2008
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December 9th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
It’s gotten to where anywhere there is a mass of people on line, then it has to be exploitable by the advertising companies. They figure they throw enough money at it and they will eventually get in the door for the purpose of serving up ads to people that don’t want it. The advertising companies are sort of like spam for all intents and purposes, a pest industry.
As all the companies are raking in the dough, they don’t want to upset the applecart (which would mean an end to the second income stream) so they all try to put a happy face on it about how much good they are doing what ever sites. The reality of that is the users of the net just want to turn them off and dump the ads.
I’ve never belonged to Myspace or any of those other sites. Call it an aversion to being datamined and used, while attempting to make it already by having an EULA with enough pages to make a book. Only reason they would want such a complicated EULA is to have a place to make well hidden their little statements to the fact you have no rights on their site and agree to give up anything and everything online for the use of their site.
That’s something I don’t agree too and will never agree too, no matter how they hide their intentions in EULAs. That they have to hide them, much less have such a large EULA tells you they up to something fishy without even having to read it. I’ve never agreed with EULAs and I don’t today.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Here’s one way to find out all the garbage that your computer is barraged with at every site you visit:
Install Firefox. Configure it. Then click on Tools>Add-ons>Get Add-ons. Find and install NoScript, AdBlock Plus, CookieSafe, WOT, CookieSafe, and Flagfox just for starters. Then USE them. What you discover right off the bat will surprise the living hell out of you! What you find in the long run through NoScript will amaze you!
If you can’t run Firefox on your non-Windows or non-Linux computer then try out a browser that has all the functions that Firefox with those Add-ons does.
BTW: See what WOT has to say about p2pnet here:
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/p2pnet.net
Be sure to click the whois link.
]:)