During leweb3, Dan Rose, VP Marketing at Facebook, was questioned about the recent polemic on Beacon.
Remember: Beacon is the latest Facebook killer application: once activated on your account, Facebook tells your friends what you buy on other sites or let companies use your name to endorse their products!
The problem was that Beacon was initially launched being plugged "on" for every Facebook member. Of course, you could opt out, but only few people were aware of it.
The result was that Beacon was felt like an intrusion against privacy.
Like Dan Rose answered us, Facebook made two mistakes:
- 'didn't listen enough to their members, hence 'didn't react quickly to first critics,
- AND, Beacon was "badly explained" (see video below.)
The aim was not to get everybody "big brothered" but to allow your friends to know what you are doing on the web.
Indeed, because you know and trust your friends, their opinion and tastes matter very much for you!
If you're about to buy a new camera, make a trip to the States or go to the cinema, you will be interested in knowing what your friends made in these fields. Okay, you meet and chat every now and then with them; but you don't necessarily talk about their buying on the web. Facebook Beacon can keep you informed of that and this is an opportunity for you to react, ask them advices or testimonies, ad finally make a better choice.
Books, cameras, travels, entertainment, and so on: what ad can be more convincing than your friends' sayings? The great difference between your friends and ads is that your friends have no interest at all to "sell" you something but share their like/dislike for a product. That way, you will invariably feel their opinion sincere and worth.
As an opening, I'd even say Beacon can get you closer to a friend you talk only once or twice a year. If he's just bought the latest book by Jacques Attali for instance, why not to send him/her a short message and talk about it (une brève histoire de l'avenir)? Good opportunity to stay in touch, isn't it?
Emmanuel de Saint-Bon
