Facebook turns pollster in search for cash

Facebook's top brass have been at the World Economic Forum in Davos, punting another way to try to turn their enormous database of personal information and trivia profitable. Like last year's disastrous "Beacon" advertising scheme, which aimed to turn members into Tupperware-style product endorsers, Facebook's latest wheeze …

[Frank]

Formally or Informally

"...Facebook's top brass have been at the World Economic Forum in Davos.."

Were they specifically invited, to share their wisdom with government delegates, economic and industrial experts? Or did they just go along to try to sell something?

[Oliver Mayes]

How does this work?

They'll have to provide some form of reward to the users for filling out these surveys, otherwise the only way I can see people bothering to do them is if Facebook begin to block your account unless you fill out X surveys per week/month. I personally would leave in a flash if they try that, I don't actually get anything useful out of it at the moment beyond a bit on mindless trivia about what people I know happen to be doing at the moment.

[A. Lewis]

Advert on this story

I just saw an ad at the side of this story for computertan.com - selling a new technology that can give you a tan through your monitor. Surely this is a joke... Right?

[W]

Re: computertan.com

Check their Prvacy Policy.

It's by The Karen Clifford Skin Cancer Charity.

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook can get knotted

"The pressure on Facebook to show a return on the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in its storage and bandwidth is growing."

They're fucked then aren't they? How is this ever going to generate money? No-one clicks on the links, that's not what they're visiting Facebook for.

I never allow applications to access my data but I am well aware that lots of them already try to pull much more than they actually need. If Facebook allow companies to harvest our data then I for one will click the box that says "No, I don't want to be able to xxxx, leave my data alone".

If companies do start making applications that harvest user data, the majority of people probably wouldn't even notice...

[Paul]

overvalued then

and exactly how did VCs ever think they'd make money out of facebook?

[Elmer Phud]

Facebook polls

"Facebook asked 120,000 US members whether they believe Barack Obama's complex fiscal stimulus plans would work. Almost 60 per cent of the selected swivelchair economists said they wouldn't."

How many could be bothered to reply? How many Faceache users even have a tiny weeny clue about the complexity of the financial plans? Usually with such questions you end up getting more negative than positive replies anyway.

It's not patting oneself on the back, it's round the front and lower down.

[Kev K]

computertan.com

Yuk - huge (opps sorry .... EPIC) fail

dodgy flash based "corp" type thing - fires up on screen "free tanning session" - then lots of uv rays can kill you rant and lots of pics of ppl with growths and stuff.

FFS we are geeks - most of us have never seen the sun

thats just gone right into my blacklist of acceptable domains at work

[Ian Ferguson]

Hmm

The only way Facebook will make money is by charging a subscription fee.

Which will drive down their membership and prevent new registrations.

And potential customers will start looking for the next free alternative.

Much like their predecessor... what were they called? Friends Reestablished? Fred Reunited? Whatever.

[Anonymous Coward]

computertan?

There are ads on El Reg?

[Anonymous Coward]

I luv u?

demographic of facebook users = twats. A world of innane idiots using animated emoticons. Self-congratually wankers who collect "friends".

I'm off down the pub to see real people.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Kev K

Being geeks, we're also aware that displays cannot produce UV light. You can get some radiation from a CRT, but only if you open the case and sit behind it.

[Dave]

Don't give them the data

My solution was initially not to bother with a Facebook account and then to get one with the bare minimum of personal details entered. I don't normally respond to anything but friend requests from people I know, so all the application requests just get ignored. (It's interesting how many friends actually find me just by having the bare minimum information to start with.)

[pctechxp]

Tried it, found it crap, dumped it

I tried this mind numbingly boring site (even for a proud geek like me it was dull) as people just fired endless meaningless quesionnaires at me and gave me the odd poke.

Otherwise did not engage in any kind of social discourse whatsoever so in the end I asked them to delete my details.

[TeeCee]

OMFG!

So we're staring down the barrel of future products only being produced if they play well with the lusers of facewank?

So this is how the world ends......

[Markie Dussard]

@pctechxp

QED

You reap what you sow, you dullard.

[Dave]

Facebook

Randi Zuckerberg said. "We are showing how we are a serious and insightful community."

How?