As much as I thought that Facebook deserved to get beaten up about this, I’m surprised that the participating companies have gotten off without as much as a scratch.  Soon, we’ll see that I think.  Coke just walked away, but others won’t and get hit.  They deserve it in my opinion.

Jonathan Trenn

I wonder if the Beacon program is basically Newfeed 2.0.  There was huge controversy and backlash when they released the feature.  Now it is definitely one of the more popular features on Facebook.  Only time will tell, but it should be interesting to see.

Facebook’s implementation breaks the most powerful unwritten rule of social networks ... Social networks’ strength is that they provide equal benefit to all users.  There is a way for advertisers to partake in this equal playing field, but Facebook’s implementation has not captured this.  Maybe the “vendor community” understands this better than the “social network provider”.  You will see an equal benefit playing field implementation soon (probably not on Facebook) ... stay tuned.

Steve Goldner

I think that Coca Cola is smart in waiting to see how well their new ad program works before jumping the gun too soon.  I think social networks are a great form of targeted advertising, but I think some modification is needed for it to be completely effective.