Jean-Louis Gassée:
Back to Facebook. Both Google and Zuckerberg’s company vie for the same advertising dollars. This makes Google Facebook’s biggest, most direct competitor. The Trojan Horse applications on Android-powered smartphones are a direct threat to Facebook’s advertising business. Just like Google, Facebook wants to maximize our exposure to ads that are finely-tuned using the personal data we provide as a payment for the service. For this, the company needs a well-controlled smartphone.
So they can throw more ads at users. What a grand business plan.
Yeah, you can be sure that I would never buy this.
This is not the way to go in the future I think.
Advertising is necessary, but how often do users follow targeted ads? How often do those ads actually promote the products the user might be interested in?
On the other hand, how often do users who actually want to buy something visit sites about and surrounding the product they’re interested in?
Take The Loop and Asymco.com for example. I imagine the sponsors are chosen, to some degree, based on their relevance for the readership, which IMO reflects itself in the clicktroughs and actual purchases.
I’ve found more interesting and useful products through ads on sites I frequent than anywhere else on the web.
I cannot imagine being bombarded by ads on phone, a device with minimal screen real estate and the task of maximal usefulness when I need it.