Tito's Blog

Social Graph Clustering

If someone had doubts about the value of the data that can be inferred from the social graph, take a look at this clustering of the US: PeteSearch: How to split up the US

Volume Premiums in Advertising

From a good Facebook advertising platform analysis on Forbes, it seems like there is a premium on reach, rather than on precise targeting.

Generally, the promise of online advertising is targeting pitches at the precise group for your particular product. But all that precision doesn’t make Facebook much more profitable. In fact, typi

The approximately 2,300 U.S.-based Facebook users with a Harvard degree in economics fetch a meager 3 to 13 cents per click. But if you aim to advertise to all 29,000 U.S.-based Harvard graduates, Facebook will suggest a bid of 54 to 71 cents.

That’s precisely why TV advertising is still kicking. Advertisers need to reach vast audiences and niche targeting is not necessarily what they are aiming for. I am pretty sure that even Google struggles to monetize searches with lower volumes.

Instead of volume discounts, advertising commands volume premiums.

Social Scammers Have Arrived

Something weird happened today. I was checking out Facebook and a friend of mine contacted me on chat. He said he flew to London to meet a client but got robbed and didn’t have the money to buy the flight back to the States. I was quite worried for him and all ready to help.

I started realizing it was a scam when he asked me to wire money through Western Union.

Facebook became a de facto third party authentication authority, and I didn’t doubt the real identity of my friend for a good 15 minutes. To double check his identity I sent him a text message and found out the sad reality: his Facebook account was hacked (how scary is that!) and he was fine and warm in California.

Until today I thought it was safe to have my information and pictures on my profile, because I trusted the fact that only my friends could see it. Now beware, social scammers have arrived.