The Facebook Generation

I read an article about Facebook's need to innovate or die. And I guess, my POV on this is that, we users certainly don't make it easy on them to do so. There were a million members (exaggeration?) protesting the news feed. Now? We love it. Half the time I log on I don't make it past that home screen. The other half of the time, it's my access point to the rest of the site. My friends profiles, cause pages, photos. Facebook's innovation is like our parents telling us "you'll thank me when you're older". We get used to their innovation and end up not being able to live without it. I can't wait to see what they force us into, next. I'm sure it's going to be awesome.

The one thing I haven't heard a lot of chatter about (maybe I'm just not looking for it in the right places) is Facebook's behavioral targeting. I didn't even notice until my "status" changed from "in a relationship" to "engaged", and suddenly all the ads I see on Facebook are for wedding favors, photographers, wedding planners, etc. Facebook gets kudos for the engaging ads it serves up, but I'd say their targeted ads, serving up exactly what my profile says I should be interested in (I'm not), is a huge step forward in online advertising.