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GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

forbes.com

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Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#181

Post by jrockway »

alain94040 wrote: post #145
MartinCron wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(The fact that you can't buy a car with one click shows how hopelessly behind the industry is.) Cars are, for most people anyway, the kind of really large purchase that requires a lot more effort and deliberation, not to mention financing, than makes sense to do in one click.

Until someone gamifies car purchasing, so that when I get 10,000 facebook points, I can redeem for a discount at my local GM dealership. Now that would be a great source of leads for car manufacturers.

Whoa, "dealership"? That's the part of the equation that everyone wants gone.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#183

Post by AznHisoka »

badclient wrote: post #149

All this will be moot when Facebook launches its search engine in couple years.

It takes time to actually build a search engine - you just can't get up and say you're gonna build one. Even if you somehow bring in a partner like Bing. Google has been fighting spammers, scrapers, black-hatters, and thinking about all kinds of search problems for over a decade.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#184

Post by jrockway »

webwright wrote: post #133
cletus wrote: post #114

I've said this repeatedly: Facebook is a high-risk proposition, particularly as an investment (disclaimer: I work for Google). "Intent" as other commenters have noted is a big part of the story but it's not the only story. Search can broadly be broken up into at least two categories: 1. Navigational eg typing "b and h" into the browser; and 2. Informational eg "cheap flights to jamaica". I don't know what the make up…

"I've said this repeatedly: Facebook is a high-risk proposition, particularly as an investment (disclaimer: I work for Google). "Intent" as other commenters have noted is a big part of the story but it's not the only story." As a Google employee, what do you think of Google as an investment? If you look forward 5+ years, everyone is doing much of their internetting via their phone (certainly some or all of that will…

I don't think that any Google employee is going to reply to your comment with advice. "As a Google employee, I say invest!" is not going to get you on the good side of the lawyercats.

What I think is interesting about Google is how much voting power the founders retain. Things like a campus of solar panels, space elevators, and self driving cars (not to mention Chrome and Android) make a lot more sense when you realize it's not "the shareholders" that want those, it's the founders that want those. Google is a company where two successful guys and several thousand of their closest friends (we like to think) can do whatever they want. Is that a good investment? I'll let you decide.

(Disclaimer: Google employee. And if anyone takes that quote at the top out of context... well, let's just say laywercat suggests that I don't put it in writing.)

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#186

Post by freehunter »

joering2 wrote: post #164
untog wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There is nothing preventing Facebook from being the next Myspace when something newer, cooler and hipper comes along and the users move on." I would argue that things like the massive photo collections people have made provide a large level of lock-in. I also suspect that Timeline is the first play in a "all your history, here" move that would make moving to another service very difficult.

I don't see a problem here. Most of folks here, including myself, over the span of one weekend could write a downloadable version of a Visual Basic application with a built-in Internet Explorer Window where you login to your facebook and then the app scrap (download) all data you ever had, all messages, photos, etc, everything within a couple of minutes, elegantly packet into zip, xml or whatever format you wish to h…

This hypothetical app exists. I used it when I started using Google+ to copy my photos over to Picasa. I believe it was a Chrome extension.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#187

Post by beedogs »

Xuzz wrote: post #179
joering2 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see a problem here. Most of folks here, including myself, over the span of one weekend could write a downloadable version of a Visual Basic application with a built-in Internet Explorer Window where you login to your facebook and then the app scrap (download) all data you ever had, all messages, photos, etc, everything within a couple of minutes, elegantly packet into zip, xml or whatever format you wish to h…

Or just use their built in data exporter, which while not instant, does include all photos and information that user posted. No need to build anything, really.

I'm not even sure I'd need my photos; I've got better copies of most of them in Aperture anyway. In fact, I'm really not sure what I'd want to keep from Facebook if I were to leave the site for good.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#188

Post by beedogs »

micahgoulart wrote: post #71

Who is to say that GM didn't pull ads from Facebook so they could short sell the Facebook stock and earn their $10 million back? Why not?

That would be absurd. Anyone who would propose something like this at a GM board meeting would be marched out with all their personal belongings in a cardboard box.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#189

Post by joering2 »

sirclueless wrote: post #177
joering2 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, you misunderstood or I haven't explained properly (mostly the latter). What I said is that the App would download all _your_ photos that you owe on your account. Given that it takes couple seconds max until I see a full photo from the moment I clicked it, it would take tens of minutes to download hundreds of photos: 5 sec per photo x 200 photos == 16 minutes of robot's work while you enjoy your drink. edit: so th…

You still lose the entire network of tags around each photo. The most valuable thing about Facebook photos over, say, Flickr photos, is knowing who is in them.

those are little issues that can be programmed in. I can save every photo tag and info about tag for uploading that info into the new network (but saving it for now)

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#190

Post by joering2 »

jvrossb wrote: post #175
joering2 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, you misunderstood or I haven't explained properly (mostly the latter). What I said is that the App would download all _your_ photos that you owe on your account. Given that it takes couple seconds max until I see a full photo from the moment I clicked it, it would take tens of minutes to download hundreds of photos: 5 sec per photo x 200 photos == 16 minutes of robot's work while you enjoy your drink. edit: so th…

Don't think so. Your hypothetical app saves all of my photos, but I suspect people spend far more time browsing other peoples' photos. Those I don't get by being the first to migrate to a Facebook competitor. That's where the powerful lock-in lies.

no it doesnt. when something "better" shows up people will want to move on, but you are right there will be like "oh, all my photos and tags, I cant leave them". "But wait, there is that App that Joe programmed and Mary, Mike, John and Jennie already used it, I can use it too and all my photos will be re-linked and re-tagged on that new site. yay me!"

is it really that hard to imagine??

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