With a
sense of inevitability Facebook has finally announced that premium video adverts are coming to the platform for a ‘select’ band of advertisers. Users
will be presented with a 15 second clip, on mute, that can be scrolled past to
ignore or enlarged to add sound. In a web environment that is dominated by
high-intensity ads with increasingly intrusive tactics Facebook’s proposals
seem relatively unobtrusive and likely won’t have you losing too much time
between all the heart-wrenching viral videos and pictures of cats. Interestingly the ads
will be bought and measured in the way TV ads are, rather than adopting a new
basis for the platform.
Here come the videos!
(credit: cnet)
Meanwhile
Facebook head honcho Mark Zuckerburg is making phone calls to the most powerful man on the planet, American president Barack Obama. Zuckerberg argued the
American government should be presenting the internet as one of its greatest
assets, rather than existing as its greatest threat. As he explained “I've
been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government.
When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we're
protecting you against criminals, not our own government. The US government
should be the champion for the internet, not a threat. They need to be much
more transparent about what they're doing, or otherwise people will believe the
worst. I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage
the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like
it will take a very long time for true full reform.”
Wrapping up the story for all things big under the
Facebook banner, is that its 715 million dollar purchase, Instagram has signed its first ad deal. Starting as they mean to go on Instagram have agreed a
contract with the not inconsiderable might of Omnicon. The recent $100 million
deal has already attracted some positive discussion, with Forbes offering these four reasons for the ad deal being a promising one. Instagram has, perhaps wisely,
chosen the Twitter route of having ad content fit in just as a regular tweet
would in a stream that remains largely coherent.
All these events against the backdrop of a booming stock and a muted deviation from their “move fast and break stuff” mantra makes
for blue skies over the
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