Facebook ad technology: Variable targeting for advertisers

[$5 submissions]

What do you do when the people you're targeting only filled out their interests partially?

FB's solution: Variable ad targeting. Of course, there's a LEGAL issue as well due to the privacy issues this might raise

See http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20021141-36.html

Obviously, just because you're friends with someone doesn't mean you share the same interests. But if a sizable percentage of your Facebook friends share the same interests, it's pretty safe to assume that you might, too. The patent application suggests that advertisers may be able to select how heavily they want inferential targeting to be weighted.

"For example, an advertiser may determine that an ad may infer an interest for a member if more than 25 percent of the member's connections satisfy the secondary inferential targeting criteria or if at least 3 connections meet the main targeting criteria, or a combination of both," the patent application explained. "The ad targeting method may also weight the member's connections or otherwise take into account the member's affinity or other measure of closeness to the member's connections. Any combination of the above methods may be implemented in the ad targeting method."

It's a fascinating new twist in targeted advertising--and also, we'd theorize, something that may get lawmakers concerned about the scope of information to which third parties have access (again). Facebook would likely retort that such data is safely anonymized.

[gideongallery]

i can't believe they are actually going to get a patent for behavioural characteristic that people who are friends share likes.

my friends have been telling me about tv shows/resturants/etc that they like and i might too based on how well they know me.

facebook just collects that data, and the patent office is so screwed up that they are going to give a patent on what is basically select statement on that data set.

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by gideongallery

i can't believe they are actually going to get a patent for behavioural characteristic that people who are friends share likes.

my friends have been telling me about tv shows/resturants/etc that they like and i might too based on how well they know me.

facebook just collects that data, and the patent office is so screwed up that they are going to give a patent on what is basically select statement on that data set.

PTO issues all sorts of crazy patents. Remember Acacia?

[$5 submissions]

I wonder how applicable this is to differing advertising channels.