therealkfish

This years ominously titled f8 Conference, held September 22, 2011 in San Francisco, announced the newest iteration of the world’s favorite social network. Aside from the usual outrage from users scared of having to take three minutes out of their Facebook stalking to become familiar with the new UI, there are actually quite a few significant changes to the Profile as we have come to know it over the last few years. The most significant is that the Profile will not longer be set up as a profile page per se, but instead more of a social timeline, better coalescing previously piecemeal information into a more streamlined and better accessible whole. For a rundown of the changes, I recommend you check out Brian Solis’ analysis (http://bit.ly/ra7wYE) of the new features. Of particular note is the new Open Graph feature for Facebook Apps. This feature allows the Apps you connect to your Facebook page, “to contribute contextual activity to the Timeline automatically through action verbs. …Facebook apps will populate your storybook, based on the permissions you set” (qtd. from the Solis analysis above). This means that Apps will automatically update your Facebook page with things like “Kyle is reading _____”, “Kyle recently watched ______”, etc.,  depending on which Apps you have linked to your Facebook and which permissions you set for them. This takes the time and effort from having to constantly update your interests with new information, meaning that Facebook will better reflect the current status of your offline life, online. Beyond the obvious cool factor and increased integration, this feature has some relatively serious implications for users.

Let me digress and remind you that Facebook’s worth has been estimated at right around $100 per user. This is a free service that is somehow worth over 50 billion dollars. How does this happen? Well friends, Facebook is valued based on its marketing potential. No venture capital has been put into it on the basis that it is the world’s foremost social network. That statistic on its own is worthless. People are putting money into Facebook’s access to all of the intricate details and interests of every one of it’s members. As anyone who has ever taken out a Facebook Ad can attest, the possibilities for target marketing are nearly endless. That’s because Facebook offers anyone wanting to advertise with them access to filters that very precisely allow someone to pinpoint their target audience. Want to take out an ad for only male college students in California, who like a certain band and are friends with someone who likes another related band, who enjoy skateboarding, and street art? Go for it. Facebook allows anyone that capability, for a price. They aren’t selling your information like scum of the earth telecom providers, they merely charge people for the ability to place an ad on the sidebar of the Facebook pages you look at.

Think about this in light of the new improvements to the Facebook service. Facebook hasn’t created a better social network. They’ve created a better marketing machine with a pretty face. Marketers are now able to target you based on real-time information being updated via your Open Graph apps. Let me break this down further. The information on your Profile used to be based upon whatever you manually typed in—meaning that your interests were probably the same from 2005 when you set up your Facebook in the first place, that you didn’t put Paramore in the music section (even though they have the most plays in your iTunes) because you have a reputation to uphold, that your secret affinity for Real Housewives Atlanta somehow didn’t make the cut even though you take care to make sure that you DVR each episode, etc. This manually entered information was what marketers used to target your wallet. Now these areas will be populated with up to the minute information about your life, interests, and how you spend your time. Remember also, that these apps are made by companies who are attempting to turn their own profits. Their reason for having the Facebook integrated app in the first place is so that they can market their service via your Facebook page. (Spotify’s Facebook app integration led to 3.4 million new users in a week long span, more than doubling the previous user count). What I’m trying to say here is that you aren’t being given a free profile page on Facebook. You are being given the page to become a subject of the single most highly targeted marketing system in human history. That little ad on the side of your page is about to get a lot better at showing you things you are actually interested in.

I’m not sure I’m ok with that.