I've been kicking myself all day today; News Corp's purchase of MySpace is making better sense than before. According to the New York Times, MySpace intends to customise adverts based upon the data that its users freely provide as part of their profiles. Facebook isn't far behind, although why one advertiser thinks that journalists want to work from home (we do) on dull data entry (Oh, hold on, this sounds rather familiar) for £12 an hour (Now steady on), I'm not sure. On second thoughts, that sounds like perfect targeting.
The long and short of it is that NewsCorp reckons it can tailor ads to its users, using intimate data the users provide - rather than usage data that the site, or a search engine, gathers from the user's behaviour. News Corp. says that the ad targeting is based on what users say, what they do and what they say they do - smart work.
There's a catch here. Most users assume that the old model of web advertising - get a rough idea of the user, slap ads on page, collect revenue - applies. What they're about to find is that the data they are providing - to be shared with friends - is going to be used to sell stuff to them.
That said, there is a massive shift in the way people use the web. I now realise I'm an old 'un at the age of 32, because I'm going to say the following: youngsters use social networking differently. They are less concerned about freely sharing all kinds of information with others; with inviting people they don't know, and have never met, to be friends. They're unconcerned that the deal they are involved in - be advertised to in a very targeted manner in exchange for the platform - is not as good for them as it was in the past. It's a toss-up as to whether the new profiling and advertising methods will cause a backlash - we'll only be able to find out by watching how MySpace users react. Assuming, of course, that they react at all.