In-Your-Face Book, II

According to The New York Times, Facebook is changing its "Beacon" marketing scheme after 50,000 people signed a petition protesting it.As we reported earlier in "In-Your-Face Book", Facebook was playing with fire by paying only perfunctory attention to privacy sensitivities.While consumers still don't fully understand internet privacy issues, TAC predicts that web-based marketing schemes --

Unreasonable People

One of the things web providers are going to have to get used to is the irrationality of everyday people.This can be seen in the reaction of webbies to the fuss over Facebook's "Beacon" program (see In-Your-Face Book). They point out that people put their most intimate details on their Facebook page and then get all stirred up when Facebook publicizes what they've been buying. Isn't this complete

In-Your-Face Book

In its attempt to monetize its cultural success, Facebook is looking for trouble.As we predicted in The Ribbon, consumers are getting increasingly suspicious of social networks prying into and publicizing their private activities. Consumers still don't understand how pervasive this is, but as they get a whiff of it, they aren't liking it.Last week the Associated Press reported that users of

Baloney Sandwich

I came across two marketing stories today that made me want to scream. Or even worse, update my blog.First from the Boston Globe. A story about how net research can explain everything in the universe."You can use online data to predict what consumers are doing across every facet of their lives," said Stephen DiMarco, chief marketing officer of Compete Inc., a Boston firm that tracks Web traffic.