Sometimes I get asked "have you ever seen someone do XYZ to acquire customers?" Turns out, the highest vote of confidence I can give is, "No I haven't, and that's good -- that means there's a higher chance of it working. You should try it."

Objectives: increase monthly streams on my Spotify artist page so I can get picked up by Spotify algorithms better. Which in turn means I get on even bigger playlists which in turn means… er… profit?

Did it work?

Yes, but with massive caveats. I got onto lots of playlists and my monthly Spotify plays went from under 10 to over 2,000. I have yet to be picked up by the big Spotify algorithms though.

In an attempt to sell advertising space in a user’s new tab page within the Firefox browser, Mozilla is launching a new platform called “Suggested Tiles” specifically for advertisers. Similar to Google using your Web search history to load related advertisements within Google Adsense placements, Mozilla will look through your visited sites within Firefox to suggest an advertiser site to visit and display it on the new tab page.

However, there are user protections built into the new feature as detailed on Mozilla’s Advancing Content blog. Users will be able to flip off the Suggested Tiles function by toggling a check box within the browser’s settings. Users can also completly avoid site suggestions by opting for a blank page when opening up a new tab within Firefox.

When someone with an infected computer later visits any of a number e-commerce sites, including Expedia.com, Gap.com or the shoe-seller Finishline.com, the spyware on his or her machine throws up a large pop-up window that covers the entire browser with another browser window displaying the same site. Unsuspecting shoppers make purchases on that pop-up window they normally might.

But that second window "reflects the fruit of click fraud," says Edelman. To create that pop-up, TrafficSolar invisibly simulates a click on one of the ads it hosts through its deal with Google affiliates, an ad for the same site the user intended to visit.

Säljer du bannerutrymme på din sajt? I så fall är det bra att följa de standardformat som Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) nu rekommenderar. Under IABs kartläggning över vilka bannerformat som används på svenska sajter idag hittade de över 500 olika format.

Alla dessa storlekar innebär självklart en väldig massa formatanpassning för de annonsörer som vill synas på flera olika sajter. Därför har IAB nu tagit fram Svensk Displaystandard, där de rekommenderar 14 st annonsformat för sajtägare att erbjuda sina annonsörer.

The growth of its user base and its ever-expanding

page views means an almost infinite inventory to sell. But the expanding supply, together with an equivocal demand, means ever-lowering costs. The math is sickeningly inevitable. Absent an earth-shaking idea, Facebook will look forward to slowing or declining growth in a tapped-out market, and ever-falling ad rates, both on the Web and (especially) in mobile. Facebook isn't Google; it's Yahoo or AOL.

...

As Facebook gluts an already glutted market, the fallacy of the Web as a profitable ad medium can no longer be overlooked. The crash will come. And Facebook—that putative transformer of worlds, which is, in reality, only an ad-driven site—will fall with everybody else.

Few things warm the heart quite like a goofy publicity stunt. P.T. Barnum once had an elephant plow a field. German phone manufacturer Gigaset is right on Barnum's wavelength. Animals get attention. In this particular case, the animal is a chatty British Gold Macaw on Facebook.

OK, let's review. We have a parrot. We have Facebook. Put the two together in a live-chat format and you get people from around the world jawing with a bird over the Internet's most popular social-networking site.

...

The parrots will be on duty until the 9th of May between 3 a.m. and 1 p.m. PT. There are a few simple rules. Be patient. Don't swear. He won't answer questions about his personal life, but topics such as biscuits and chickens are OK.

Amid intensifying concern over surging obesity rates, the chain has distanced itself from its fast-food origins, adding café-friendly items such as fruit smoothies and dolling up restaurants with free WiFi and padded seats. While the shift helped to revive sales growth last year -- McDonald’s has credited McCafe coffee for revenue growth in six of the past seven quarters -- the new adults-only ambiance leaves little room for Ronald.

“He kind of represents the old McDonald’s, with the high- fat content foods that are kind of falling out of favor,” said Bob Dorfman, the executive creative director at Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco. “It’s clear that McDonald’s is advertising coffee, they’re not advertising burgers.”

But, then, how is Facebook so profitable?

Are they lying?

No.

They are growing.

More and more people sign up to Facebook, and more and more businesses hear about how many people are on Facebook.

It seems like a huge opportunity.

TV shows and award-winning movies are made about Facebook.

...

Eventually, though, and this might take a long time, but it is finite, everyone will have tried Facebook ads and know that they are useless. Eventually, after 10 million businesses have invested $1000 each, and Facebook has earned $10 billion in revenue in total, then they will have run out of new customers and their revenue will dry up.

A useless product is never sustainable.

I wish I could short Facebook.