How Facebook Is Selling Your Timeline to Advertisers
I think we've reached the point where no-one should be surprised about this. And besides:<p><i>What most users don’t know is that the new features being introduced are all centered around increasing the value of Facebook to advertisers</i><p>Centered? I don't know. Timeline seems pretty user-centric to me. I've had it for a few months as a developer, but since it became public I've seen plenty of my friends filling out details, tagging their friends in previous big life events... they're not doing it because Facebook tricked them into it, they're doing it because they want to.<p>Yes, there is also an advertiser advantage to this- same as any information you plug into Facebook. But I don't think it's fair to paint Facebook as cynically putting Timeline together so that they can mine data. If you're comfortable with the way Facebook makes money (which, personally, I am) there's nothing to go crazy about in here.