Facebook:  Into the Open Graph

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t shy away from grand promises. At the release of Facebook’s ill-fated Beacon content-sharing platform in November 2007, he called it a once-in-a-century shift in media. Last week, he made another grand pronouncement, this time when introducing Open Graph, Facebook’s audacious plan to serve as the de facto social operating system for the Internet. The new system, he said, is “the most transformative thing we’ve ever done for the Web.”  While many pooh-poohed Beacon, this time few in the industry cast aspersions. The new initiative, like the previous one, aims to make Facebook the Web’s social connective tissue. The difference this time around? Facebook just might succeed. One reason why: Facebook’s growth rate. When Beacon launched, Facebook had 50 million users; at the Open Graph introduction, it announced it crossed 450 million users worldwide. Facebook’s plan betrays an ambitious agenda for the company to take its deep trove of social data and spread it around the Web through a set of social plug-ins, which among other things will make its “Like” buttons ubiquitous and let sites customize user experiences. That information then gets fed back to Facebook and broadcast to the user’s networks. By compiling a list of what interests and motivates people, Facebook could out-Google Google by building the most powerful “database of intentions,” as author John Battelle termed it in 2005.

Read More: AdWeek

Do You Know the ABC’s of DSP’s?

At the 4A’s annual meeting in March, someone threw out a stumper of a question. The conversation had turned to one of the more confusing topics in display advertising: “demand-side platforms” that allow marketers to buy audiences in near real-time.  Moderator Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, interrupted the chatter, noticing the glazed eyes of the agency-exec-filled audience: “Does everyone know what we’re talking about?”  The predominant answer? Um, no.  “There was just a sense that the audience didn’t know what they were talking about,” said Debra Meyer, Yahoo’s VP-agency revenue and development. Increasingly, that’s where she comes in.  But Yahoo’s agency-outreach team — and its counterparts at Google, Microsoft and AOL — aren’t merely explaining the ins and outs of digital media but actually working with agencies to build the infrastructure that handles digital buys.

Read More: AdAge

Rise of the Generators

Content Mill. Content farm. Scam. Try Googling “Demand Media,” “Associated Content” or Seed.com, and those are some of the terms you’re likely to encounter. Yet if you read any content produced by these companies, you’re also likely to encounter ads from established brands like Chevrolet, Tide, AT&T, CoverGirl and Progressive Insurance.  Even as industry observers obsess over whether these next-gen content companies—which churn out thousands of search friendly articles usually produced by inexpensive freelancers—are destroying journalism, advertisers don’t seem to care. According to digital buyers, while not every brand is right for this category, most aren’t scared off by this budget content model, despite lingering questions about quality and even SEO gamesmanship. “It’s cheap, but it’s smart,” said Edward Montes, evp, managing director Havas Digital. “The quality of the placement and production are well done.”  Buyers like Demand and Associated can produce custom, highly targeted content for brands. And with the rise of blogs, many clients have grown more comfortable with the idea that long-tail, nonprofessional content “can be very valuable,” said Rich Kim, associate media director at RPA. “Niche content can represent an environment where people are most receptive.”

Read More: MediaWeek