Facebook opens door to advertisers

Social networking website Facebook launched a new initiative with advertisers on Wednesday,initiating a new form of personalized advertising and pages for companies.

"Engaging with businesses and buying things are part of your everyday life. Advertising doesn't have to be about interrupting what you're doing but getting the right information about the purchases you make when you want it," Facebook blogger Leah Pearlman wrote in the company's announcement of the new product.

"We believe we've created a system where ads are more relevant and actually enhance Facebook."

Facebook will rely on information in users' profiles and on their friends' online activity to determine what ads might appeal to them.

For example, if a friend adds a band to their list of favourite music, the addition will appear ina user'snewsfeed as per usual, but paired with an ad for the group. The friend will have the option of sending that advertisement, called a "social ad," but users will haveno choice but to receive it.

Another new feature will allow Facebook users to import their activity from outside sites, in a program called Beacon. For example, the program would be embedded on the eBay auction site, allowing a Facebook user who lists an item for auction to send a message to Facebook friends.

Users can similarly alert friends to their reviews of restaurants or bands they enjoyed and books or DVDs they bought online, whether through Beacon or the Facebook page. Advertisers can have their pitches appear next to those alerts — appearing with the user's photo, though marked "sponsored."

Advertiserscan alsocreate pages for free in a special section of the site, called "Facebook Pages." By launch time,100,000 company pages had been created.

Pearlman assured users that they will continue to have control over their information and that advertisers would never have access to info on who is seeing their ads. Businesses, despite having their own profile pages, won't have access to individual profiles the same way that friends do, even if the user formally declares themself a "fan" of the company.

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook planned to go after the bigger opportunities in generating demand — something Google and other sites are trying to do through display and other brand promotions. Seeing a friend buy a product or praise a band, he said, are good ways to generate demand.

"People influence people," Zuckerberg said. "Nothing influences a person more than a recommendation from a trusted friend."

Zuckerberg told reporters he wasn't worried whether users would consider Facebook too commercial. He said regular ads would stand out more because targeted ads can be better integrated with conversations users are already having with one another.

Initial participants include Travelocity, Coca-Cola, General Motors Corp.'s Saturn, Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures and the National Basketball Association.