(Image source: TechCrunch)
BY MALLORY PERRYMAN
ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN
From the outskirts of your home page--to a spot front and center.
Facebook has officially rolled out news feed ads.
CNET has the details.
“There won't be a lot of ads--just one per day--but they will be unsolicited. Instead of being on the right hand side of the page and marked ‘sponsored,’ they will appear randomly within users' news feeds and be labeled ‘featured.’"
Inside Facebook has a screenshot of what the news feed ads look like-- explaining-- users will only see ads from businesses or pages they’ve already “liked.”.
Facebook had previously announced the news feed ads were on their way-- but a tech blogger for the Financial Times says, the ads were supposed to be labeled “sponsored”. According to a Gartner analyst...
“...the term could mislead Facebook users into thinking the post was featured for relevancy, rather than because an advertiser paid to place it there...”
A Gizmodo blogger agrees, saying the switch from “sponsored” to “featured”...
“...is more of language mistake than an attempt to be evil. Few users have seen these yet, so Facebook should consider choosing a different term to denote the ads.”
Marketers can also pay to “feature” stories generated by your friends interacting with their pages. A blogger for The Atlantic Wire says, the change will probably annoy users, but it’s not so bad.
“...the fear of ads appearing in Facebook's News Feed has always been that it would be perceived as creepy...Although we expect some scrutiny regarding privacy, the personalization aspect of the new ads seems more useful than invasive.”
You can’t opt out of the “featured” ads-- but you can delete the ads individually as they show up in your newsfeed.
 |  |  |  |
