The advertising deal between Facebook and MySpace that will allow MSN Adcenter to reach Facebook members is creating a backlash in the social networking scene. Facebook members are rioting over the social networking sites news feed and other related features. A user driven and community created network of college students, Facebook has made strides with its’ MySpace-like community. Facebook’s new homepage features are intended to help users but the changes have upset the community as a whole. There are now several “I want the old Facebook” groups being formed daily with thousands of members.ÂÂ

The new home page of Facebook features updates on every single thing your friends are doing on the Facebook network. Whether they became single recently, signed up for a new class, or ate a corn dog… you’re going to hear about it. One would think users would appreciate the changes in terms of Web 2.0, think again! The new homepage has become a headache to users and peeping toms watching every move you make on the social networking giant. Simply put, users feel betrayed. It appears Facebook is following in Friendster’s foosteps of “who’s viewed my profile” in a midguided effort to out-feature MySpace. Facebook members have taken their disgust a step further by starting a Facebook petition to resist the step forward into Web 2.0. (continue reading below)

Perhaps the majority of these college and high school students do not understand Web 2.0 and its’ usefulness. Then again, if Facebook were to allow users to pick and choose which friends they were to receive news feeds from and what to receive updates on then perhaps Facebook users would welcome the change with open arms. The news feed changes are the most hated new features. Members feel they are being forced to blog, that the new features act like a ’stalker watch’ update service, and that the updates on all their friends little changes become overwhleming and irrelevant. Currently the petition has over 51,962 people protesting the changes. Facebook should make some changes before its too late.

Even more startling, there is a Facebook group called “Students Against Facebook News Feeds” with over 380,000 members and over 5,000 new members being added every 30 minutes.

The real deal is that Facebook administrators must understand that you cannot push features on a community of internet users that do not understand nor need the new features. The news feeds of Facebook were a shock and unwelcome advance. The Facebook administrators should have eased the features in or polled users on what features they would like to see added to the site.

Phillip Research intends to impress the visitors to this year’s IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) with the worlds first promotional LED emitting fabric technology. The textiles make it possible to create fabrics that display dynamic advertisements on various fabric surfaces. The electronics, batteries, and LED arrays are fully integrated and invisible to the observer and wearer. So no need to worry about clunky batteries people. The fabrics are can be easily washed as the batteries and electronic controllers easily disconnect and reconnect.

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Budweiser wants to attract more young male viewers. Anheuser Busch announced Wednesday it will be launching Bud TV. The web based video network will be launching in February and try to capture the success of YouTube and other video/social networking web sites. The company plans to feature humorous ‘webisodes’, sporting events, consumer generated content, field news reports, celebrity interviews, music downloads, and comedian vignettes. Anheuser’s marketing plan for Bud TV appears to be heading in the right direction. Unlike many corporate “MySpace” profiles, the Bud TV move to capture young male viewers will request true involvement from visitors. The whole reason YouTube, Myspace, and Facebook became successful was that they were social networks created and driven by the consumer. Anheuser understood this and the company hopes to create entertainment for young viewers that fits directly with their lifestyles in a fun and engaging way.

Corporations must understand that the consumer rules the internet and recognizing the consumer’s individuality is of utmost importantance to an online campaign. Subjective decision makers on a campaign like this will never work. The old timers in the boardroom will likely have little say on a move such as this one. Thankfully, it appears the ‘freedom thinkers’ of the 21st century have stepped up the plate and will blast a homerun this February with Bud TV. (Bud TV Logo Made By Caffeine Marketing)

Publicity stunts have gone nut-so. Thanks to the sports gaming website, Sportsbook.com, a billboard has been placed on the Las Vegas striped encased with 100,000 one dollar bills. Late this morning, someone tried to get their hands on the money. The billboard was being guarded by your typical slacker of a security guard who decided it was time to get a soft drink and leave his post for 5 - 10 minutes.

When he returned, bills were falling from the sky. Sportsbook.com reported that the theft was not a publicity stunt (duh) and are investigating the robbery with the authorities. According to Marketing Director for Sportsbook.com, “We thank the police department for their quick response and ongoing investigation. This is not a publicity stunt. The money stolen was put on display to demonstrate that you can win free cash in contests at Sportsbook.com.”

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Google has officially opened up its vault web bloggers and marketing research junkies. Google announced that they will be further expanding their online presence with the Google News Archive Search. The archive database will hold over 200 years of digitised newspaper articles and online content. People using the new search feature will be shown both free and subscription based news outlets. According to Google, the exact number of sources is ‘confidential’. Results are presented along ‘related articles’ on Google News search. Free and charged for articles will be placed side by side along with ‘cost of viewing’ information. You will also be able to view articles using a timeline and keydates in the world’s history.

There is no doubt the new feature will dramatically affect how we do research online. According to the Nielsen Firm more than 380 million people use Google every month last year. Google has been talking about expanding into downloadable novels free of charge within the coming year. Google says it plans to launch the news archive search service internationally by the end of the year.

I had mentioned last week that hypocritical Starbucks were reversing their offer to employees to use a coupon sent to employees for free iced coffee that their coupons were not voided. After hearing the news, Caribou Coffee responded by annoucing that they will now accept those Starbucks coupons for a limited time only. You can visit any Caribou location on Friday, September 8th from 12:00am to close to get yourself a free iced coffee drink. Caribou really made a slam dunk with this move. I’m sure they might even get a few employees relocating after this marketing stunt.

Following the news that Steve Irwin (The Crocidile Hunter) was killed this weekend by a stingray, plenty of people were searching the internet for news of his death. Using Google, searchers have been finding ads offering the ability to “Buy Stever Irwin’s Death on eBay” on the right hand side of the search results.

As part of Google’s contextual based advertising delivery system, these disturbing listings should be blocked. For some reason, Google’s lack of care for these problems are increasingly alarming. This isn’t the first time this has happened. One would think words such as died, death, or killed would be on a blocked list. However, Google is ready and willing and ready to sell you anything you type in their search box.