How to Opt-Out of Appearing in Facebook Ads
A couple months ago I was put off after seeing a friend in a sidebar ad on Facebook and realizing that I likely appeared on the sidebar of my friend’s Facebooks without my knowing.
At left, you’ll see Tom Lewis aka TomDog purporting to endorse a Facebook App. Sure, he probably is a “fan” of the app but I doubt he realizes that his image is being used in this manner on his friends’ sidebar.
There IS a way to opt out of your likeness being used in this paid ads for Facebook Apps, although it is not entirely easy to find the opt-out page.
Log-in to Facebook, go to “privacy” at the top right, click “News Feed and Mini-Feed,” then select the “Social Ads” tab within the module and change “Appearance in Social Ads” to No One. Screenshot below. Anyone else have issues with this?
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Twitter vs Friendfeed vs Plurk
Inspired by this Google Trends chart of Twitter v. Friendfeed posted by Ole Begemann I threw the new, horizontally dynamic visual timeline updating comment threading microblogging platform Plurk into the mix.
I tried Plurk a couple weeks back for a day. Returned on the following two days and have not returned since. There are way too many of these types of services and they don’t dynamically reflect and refract as they should. Same reason I latched onto FriendFeed as opposed to the — possibly more attractive and fun to use — SocialThing. But what IS interesting is that — according to Google Trends’ calculations, Plurk.. in only a few weeks… has set a higher trend base/level than Friendfeed — whether this is because friendfeed is widely accessed via third party apps such as Facebook, Twhirl, and AlertThingy, I’m not sure. But what is interesting is that it appears to be quite sticky and in Brazil and Taiwan is already out-“trending” Friendfeed.
The Added Value of Twitter is in the Little Things
Jerry Taft, long-time Chicago TV weatherman is an avid Twitter user. Thanks to his recent tweet I got a twinge of nostalgia, imagining the news team I grew up with in the ’80s.
Twitter has not even come close to beginning to lose its edge in my world. Many of my closest friends and peers do not use this — but this was much the case with AIM and Y! Messenger in years past. Twitter (and the numerous search engines built upon its API) enable each user access to immediately strip any and all degrees of separation from one’s self and one’s interests of the moment.
When Cubs season came around, I immediately searched Cubs on Tweetscan and added about a dozen folks who were tweeting from Wrigley on opening day (Another search tool launched more recently is Summize). The majority of people I follow are in Los Angeles. I do have a habit of adding folks depending on what locale I am in — I want to hear the local noise (which I can find by searching TwitterLocal or BrightKite). There’s a Twitter wiki with an up-to-date index of all tricks and tools for enhancing the Twitter experience here.
The way Twitter works is much more dynamic than instant messaging. What Taft tweeted above — in <140 characters, an hour or so before going on air -- was only seen immediately by a handful of people (a portion of his 77 followers who happened to be following their Twitter feed at the time). However, his announcement of the Ch. 7's new team -- and the fact that it's the same team that me and my peers grew up with on Ch. 5 in the 80s -- can also be found on Google (which crawls and indexes Twitter daily) and in posts such as this one, (especially after I put the names Magers, Yu, Giangreco, and Taft in text). It may seem subtle, but Taft is promoting his newscast in a very nuanced and personalized way. There isn't such a mention of the reformation of the classic Chicago news team on the ABC7Chicago website, or elsewhere for that matter.
What’s the point of all the noise?
I find it hard to cut down on the number of people I follow (currently over 400) because each and every one of them adds value to my daily life. It may only be one in every ten tweets that does anything for me — often less, but, as with anything today, it is easy to turn on and turn off Twitter. And later, to do filtered searches. Alas, too much time on Twitter can get crazy, for example, a friend comments on a friends tweet and suddenly there’s another person you’re interested in following.
It’s not about who you know or who follows you. With Twitter, it’s about who you follow, and how you choose to use the little 140-character gems of wisdom and added value in your life.