Back in November, we’d reported that Facebook will be soon introducing sponsored stories in its news ticker. Well, Facebook is expanding its sponsored stories again. Starting in January 2012, Facebook will be featuring ads or sponsored stories in the main news feed in the web version of the social networking site. Facebook had stopped displaying ads in the main news feed long back in 2008, thus the new move is likely to be a big boost for the advertisers.
“Starting early next year, we will gradually begin showing Sponsored Stories in News Feed,” a spokesperson for Facebook said in a statement. “Our goal is to do this thoughtfully and slowly. We hope to show people no more than one Sponsored Story in their News Feeds per day and the story will be clearly labeled.”
The sponsored stories that would appear in the News Feed would be based on stories or Pages that you and your friends have already liked. The new move is aimed at engaging more users with the ads and sponsored items on the social networking. Users may not opt out of seeing sponsored items in the news feed, though they can unsubscribe certain ads. However, users may not remove ads of the Page they have already liked.
Facebook’s new move is likely to trigger backlash from many users, who wish not to see the ads or have their news feed. Facebook was recently slammed by the US’ FTC for its privacy policies. This is why the company is looking to integrate the ads slowly. Moreover, Facebook is likely to ensure the sponsored stories look similar to the regular news feed content, which will not disturb several users.
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