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And so Facebook encroaches upon the physical world to anchor itself -- storefront businesses will come to rely on Facebook to sell personalized ads. I wouldn't

• MartinCron 13y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook gets to access to data about who purchases what and when The upside would be that you at least wouldn't keep seeing ads for things that you just purchased, as Facebook would know that you already have them. Kind of a crappy silver lining, I know.
  • travem 13y ago
    I wouldn't be so sure, I am positive Amazon still bombards me with Kindle Ads despite owning a couple already :)
    • mimiflynn 13y ago
      It has always struck me as odd that Amazon shows me ads for things I had searched for and didn't buy as though I didn't already know about those products. Seems they should perhaps show me what other people bought that searched for similar or the same products as myself.
      • freehunter 13y ago
        There was some talk of this on HN a while back, where the marketing theory presented was that there is a noticeable increase in sales if the customer walks away from a sale but is then later reminded of the product they almost bought.
      • hvass 13y ago
        From my experience with retargeting it drives amazing lift in conversions. A lot of platforms allow you to do this dynamic ad placing where you show the recently added item in a cart, but not purchased. Also, let's not forget that Amazon is obsessed with testing, I am sure they have troves of it to back up everything they are doing.
      • ianferrel 13y ago
        I walk away from purchases plenty of times not because I don't want to buy the thing I searched for, but because something more pressing comes up. Reminding me about the thing I was about to buy is very likely to get me to buy it in those cases.
    • gmu3 13y ago
      Sounds like the ads are super effective then.
  • bruceboughton 13y ago
    I wouldn't bet on it. Amazon knows exactly what I just bought and still shows me 100 different variations on it "recommended" for me.
    • dblacc 13y ago
      I've often wondered why they do this. I see more variations of items I just purchased rather than accompanying/related items.
      • wattson12 13y ago
        it works for a lot of cases, e.g. buy a book and get other books recommended, not so well for rarer purchases like laptops or phones.
        • joosters 13y ago
          I still get recommendations for the same book I just bought, but in different editions/formats. Seems like it could be improved some more.
        • dingaling 13y ago
          But be careful of the 'Perfect Partner / frequently bought with...' recommendations, which Amazon themselves disavow as being in any way compatible: If two items listed as Perfect Partner / Frequently Bought Together are not compatible, Amazon.co.uk are unable to accept the return of either item for this reason.
    • 27182818284 13y ago
      That's because it is just doing item-based collaborative filtering, right? It works beautifully other times. I bought chopsticks once and it showed me not more chopsticks, but other accessories for sushi, etc.
    • sn0v 13y ago
      It drives me nuts when I log in to Amazon and it keeps showing me all these parts for building a new PC. Damnit Amazon I just built one! How many processors do you think a single gaming PC can fit?!
• maaaats 13y ago
  > what does Facebook use? Is it proprietary? On maps on Facebook, the small text says "(C) Microsoft (C) Nokia".
  • fredsted 13y ago
    Doesn't Facebook use bing for translation and maps?
    • RyJones 13y ago
      Given the Microsoft investment in Facebook, this seems likely
    • fudged71 13y ago
      I received a document in a message from a friend and it opened in Microsoft Office's cloud. They seem to have a lot of Microsoft integration.
    • TeMPOraL 13y ago
      AFAIR it does use Bing for translation, I'm pretety sure that I saw the "translation provided by Bing" note after translating a Facebook comment the other day.
• mcormier 13y ago
  > And so Facebook encroaches upon the physical world to anchor itself Reminded me of this limited edition like counter, called Fliike. http://www.smiirl.com/ http://www.smiirl.com/
  • philsnow 13y ago
    Is this a bad typo, or do I just not understand something: > 2. Connect your _Fliike_ to the “Smiirl” Wi-Fi network and open your browser on any page. Set up your Wi-Fi network and password. (emphasis added). They should s/Fliike/device/ or s/Fliike/laptop/ for this to make any sense.
• deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
• Peroni 13y ago
  And so Facebook encroaches upon the physical world to anchor itself Not sure if you intended to sound so pessimistic but surely that's only a good thing? From a business perspective, this is an incredibly clever service. From a users perspective, this is an incredibly useful service. Everyone seems to forget that Facebook users are not the consumer, they are the product being sold. If, by using this service, Facebook delivers me alarmingly specific adverts, then so be it. I've yet to be hurt by looking at an advert.
  • ihsw 13y ago
    Oh, most definitely is it a good thing. Their initial foray into consumer products -- the HTC First -- was an absolute disaster. Strategically speaking I would not at all be surprised that this quells the fears surrounding Facebook's future, especially if it gains traction. We're witnessing the end of anonymous free wifi, and nobody is better equipped for identifying users than Facebook.
  • rch 13y ago
    Some people legitimately can be though. I take that statement as an axiom.
  • anon808 13y ago
    Unfortunately looking isn't all that's going on. The advertiser can collect data about web browsing habits which I like to keep private. And some ads can actually hurt you: http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/05/tech/yahoo-malware-attack/ http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/05/tech/yahoo-malware-attack/ Getting served data from someone you didn't choose to send you data is never a good thing.
  • User8712 13y ago
    Agreed, it's good for business. Increase your Facebook likes by having Facebook WiFi available to your customers, and therefore, get more traffic through the door as Facebook recommends your business to their friends. Also, you should be able to get some kind of analytic data back from Facebook. They should be able to show you that 75% of your WiFi users are female, 18-35, or that your customers change based on time, or day of the week. Therefore, if you know younger people drink more cappuccinos, and they come in more often at noon, you can put that drink front and center. Sure, you could do this without Facebook, but it's logging who's in your store for you, so no extra work on your part. This is even better for Facebook. Oh look, John likes to login to this coffee place, maybe we can recommend coffee ads to him. Or, more importantly, why don't we allow competing coffee shops to bid on customers using their main competitor? Think about that. There's a Starbucks across the street from your cafe. If you can advertise directly to people that use that Starbucks, that's a dream, and you'd pay a premium. Or hey, Steve (male, 35, employed, based on his Facebook profile) was just hanging out in this Honda dealership. Ford, interested in advertising your latest offers to him? So yes, this is great for business. I don't think it's that great for consumers. You might get more WiFi hotspots, which is a plus, but you're giving up your privacy to use them. Also, if you prefer not to use Facebook, you might lose access to WiFi at your favorite locations.
• ThomPete 13y ago
  They use bing.
• brjohnson 13y ago
  >Google can know that most Honda Civic drivers in Chicago (for example) park next to McDonald's, and that their phones traveled inside the restaurant This is already in beta testing. http://marketingland.com/google-quietly-testing-offline-store-visits-tracking-64778 http://marketingland.com/google-quietly-testing-offline-stor... >Google is beta-testing a program that uses smartphone location data to determine when consumers visit stores, according to agency executives briefed on the program by Google employees. Google then connects these store visits to Google searches conducted on smartphones in an attempt to prove that its mobile ads do, in fact, work. Google is reportedly using location in the background (on Android and iOS) and its database of business locations (my guess) to determine when people visit stores. >Disabling location reporting also disables Google Now features tied to location, which may be undesirable. It also explains why they killed Skyhook. http://www.theverge.com/2011/05/12/google-android-skyhook-lawsuit-motorola-samsung/ http://www.theverge.com/2011/05/12/google-android-skyhook-la...
• hoka 13y ago
  Just on LTE-enabled cars? Think bigger! They're running a full fiber optic service; they have every packet coming into and out of your house. I, for one, welcome our gigabit overlords if only for the fact that they have Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, etc shaking in their boots.
• msoad 13y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook gets to access to data about who purchases what and when I would sell all my transaction history for $5/month. Why should I care if their ads are getting better when I never pay attention to ads?
  • joosters 13y ago
    I never pay attention to ads Just about everyone thinks this. But you're wrong. It's pretty much impossible not to be affected by advertising. Sure, you don't click on the links, but the product placement and brand awareness is not something that you can turn off!
    • fastball 13y ago
      Ok... so now I'm affected by ads that are actually relevant to my life... not sure how this is a bad thing.
    • tedd4u 13y ago
      Unless Flash / ads disabled ... ?
  • angersock 13y ago
    You're not just selling your own transaction history, though--you are selling the other half of it as well. If I'm a private business or individual, I would prefer my customers not broadcast their affiliation--because some third-party source of data could be used to drive solicitation, or target advertising, or just in general be a nuisance. Remember, when you give up transaction history, you aren't just ratting on yourself--you're ratting on whomever you've done business with.
  • guloizo 13y ago
    you don't understand how ads work, do you ? educate yourself about neuromarketing and read this 1920's book by Freud's nephew Edward Bernays. Also you don't understand how profiling works, do you ? A visible effect is ads, but it's not the only one and there are invisible effects. See NSA, crackers and http://online.wsj.com/public/page/what-they-know-digital-privacy.html http://online.wsj.com/public/page/what-they-know-digital-pri...
• bluekitten 13y ago
  I am happy that Apple doesn't need to encroach on user privacy to make money, atleast for now. All this giving away stuff for free and then storing private information forever to drive ads is getting very annoying.
• lkamini 13y ago
  brjohnson, not sure why your interesting comment was deleted, but here it is. >Google can know that most Honda Civic drivers in Chicago (for example) park next to McDonald's, and that their phones traveled inside the restaurant This is already in beta testing. http://marketingland.com/google-quietly-testing-offline-store-visits-tracking-64778 http://marketingland.com/google-quietly-testing-offline-stor... >Google is beta-testing a program that uses smartphone location data to determine when consumers visit stores, according to agency executives briefed on the program by Google employees. Google then connects these store visits to Google searches conducted on smartphones in an attempt to prove that its mobile ads do, in fact, work. Google is reportedly using location in the background (on Android and iOS) and its database of business locations (my guess) to determine when people visit stores. >Disabling location reporting also disables Google Now features tied to location, which may be undesirable. It also explains why they killed Skyhook. http://www.theverge.com/2011/05/12/google-android-skyhook-lawsuit-motorola-samsung/ http://www.theverge.com/2011/05/12/google-android-skyhook-la...
• alan_cx 13y ago
  What, google is now the standard of privacy? Its OK because Google do it or something similar. Yeah, beginning to want off this planet.
• poorelise 13y ago
  "Honda could use this information and market the Civic as "the best" car for eating at McDonald's." There might be a horror scenario in there somewhere, but this isn't it :-)