GM Will Stop Paying for Ads on Facebook - Because They Don't Work

Just days before Facebook's much anticipated initial public offering, one of the largest advertisers in the U.S. has decided to stop advertising on the platform. General Motors will stop advertising on Facebook because it has determined that paid ads on the site are, well, not effective, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the Journal, GM still plans to use Facebook as an advertising platform--it will promote its products on Facebook, and continue to build social rapport with its customers via Facebook--it just won't utilize Facebook's paid ads feature. If other Facebook advertisers are paying attention to GM's actions then this could be an issue for social network, which relies almost entirely on advertising sales to turn a profit.
Of course, the WSJ notes that GM only spent about $10 million last year on Facebook ads, which is a tiny fraction of GM's total U.S. ad spending ($1.8 billion), and a tiny fraction of Facebook's total 2011 revenue ($3.7 billion). So GM's pulling out may not affect Facebook's bottom line directly, but it does raise the question--is Facebook advertising worth it?
GM Isn't Alone
Not…really, according to a just-released study by WordStream Inc., a provider of search engine marketing software and services. WordStream has released new research that compares the value of Facebook's ads to Google's Display Network, which is the part of Google that lets companies place ads on Google's related sites, such as YouTube and Gmail.
According to WordStream's research, while both Facebook and Google have huge "potential reach," the average click-through rate on Google's ads is 10 times the average click-through rate on Facebook's ads. In other words, Google's ads are essentially 10 times more effective than Facebook's ads are at getting people to, well, click.
WordStream notes that Google also offers twice as many ad formats as does Facebook, including in-video ads. Google also offers mobile game ads, while Facebook does not yet support mobile advertising at all.
"So far, Facebook's advertising platform hasn't kept pace with the explosive growth of its social network, and it remains to be seen if CEO Mark Zuckerberg even wants to focus on advertising as a source of revenue," Found and CTO of WordStream Larry Kim said in a statement. "In [Zuckerberg's] 2500+ word letter to shareholders this month, he mentioned advertising just once."
Shopping for Friends vs. Searching for Car Deals
Tech company founder and investor Chris Dixon notes, over at his blog, that while Facebook has a "lot of room to target ads more effectively," presumably by utilizing the vast data-mine it's sitting on, ads work "dramatically better" when people have purchasing intent.
In other words, Google's ads work just a little bit better because Google is a search engine--people often use it to search for products and prices. Facebook, on the other hand, is a social network, and most people are not using it to shop around for the best deal.
This revelation--that Facebook's ads may not work as well as we thought--could mean problems for the company down the road. After all, once the company goes public there will be constant pressure to…make more money, and most of Facebook's revenue comes from advertising. Will other advertisers follow in GM's footsteps?

Smart Gadgets We Can't Do Without

Digital brains have made their way into everything from toasters to picture frames to toilets--reinventing, reinvigorating, or revolutionizing some devices for good.

Consider the vacuum cleaner. It gets the job done, sure, but only if you haul it out of the closet, plug it in, and push it around like some kind of farm animal. Modern conveniences may very well help us get through the indignities of daily life, but it wasn’t until the digital age arrived that things really became interesting. The smartening up of our gadgetry has given everyday essentials--of both the low- and high-tech variety--new life. Here are nine devices that may have been okay when they were “dumb,” but are vastly more useful now that they’re “smart.”

Thermostats

Unless you’ve cracked open an old-school thermostat, you might not realize how primitive these devices really are. Until just a few years ago, thermostats contained a tube of mercury and worked much as a thermometer does: If conditions became hot enough for the mercury to rise up the tube, it would physically activate a switch and start the air conditioner blowing. Programmable, digital thermostats not only got rid of the hazardous materials but also let you set hourly heating and cooling schedules. The next generation, arriving now, is even smarter--the Nest Learning Thermostat adapts future temperature changes based on your tweaks, and you can access it online or via smartphone whether you’re in the house or on the road.

Picture Frames

When’s the last time someone pulled out a photo book or cell phone, and said that they just want to show you one picture? Old-school picture frames look fine at grandma's house, but the digital revolution has hit this mantelpiece standby hard. The big idea, of course, is that the frames automatically cycle through dozens or hundreds of digital shots, eliminating the need to print photos and deal with those painful metal tabs that hold the back of the frame together. But today’s frames can do even more. For example, the Sony DPF-D70 can tell whether it’s oriented in portrait or landscape position, and it has a clock and calendar built in. Models fromCEIVA even accept remote updates, so you can send fresh pictures to the frame from anywhere over the Web.

Washing Machines

We’ve come a long way from beating our clothes against rocks in the river, but early washing machines weren’t much better, giving users a couple of knobs for water temperature control and a timer for indicating how long the thing should agitate. Washing machines now commonly come with dozens of presets for all manner of fabrics, and can even communicate electronically with the dryer so you don’t have to input the information twice. Better yet, the next generation of washers will figure out what’s being washed automatically: RFID tags embedded in shirt buttons will alert the washer to the color and delicacy of your garments.

Vacuum Cleaners

The home robot has finally found its footing in the arena of vacuum cleaning, a noisy chore that no one seems to enjoy very much. The iRobot Roomba is common enough that “roomba” is on its way to becoming a verb à la “google,” as this pint-sized, pizza-shaped robot seems to be constantly cleaning the floor just about everywhere you go. Recent models even know when they’re running out of juice, and can find their way back to base when it’s time to recharge. All you have to do is empty the detritus it picks up once in a while.

Parking Meters

The traditional parking meter embodies the worst of all worlds. No one carries much in the way of cash anymore, and we’re expected to pony up coins at the time when we’re least likely to have them? This arrangement may be great for cash-strapped municipalities that rely on parking tickets over meter money, but it’s terrible for us drivers. Fortunately, the parking meter is rushing into the '10s with a bevy of smart technologies that let you pay by prepaid card, credit card, or cell phone. And apps coming on the market can keep tabs on open spaces to help you locate available parking spots.

Cable Boxes

Don’t get me wrong--cable television is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, and it has only gotten better since the early days. But having access to dozens, then hundreds, of channels created a rare first-world problem: How can you find something to watch amidst all those choices?

TiVo (and its competitor at the time, ReplayTV) had the solution: Plug a hard drive in between your cable box and your television set, and tell it what your favorite shows are. The DVR takes care of the hard work of changing channels and hitting Record, so even if MacGyver comes on at 3 a.m., you always have an episode waiting for you the following morning. It didn’t take a genius to integrate these two boxes together, and anyone with a serious home theater setup has gigabytes' worth of stuff on tap, just waiting to be watched (another first-world problem, there).

Alarm Clocks

Along with crying babies and fingernails on chalkboards, the sound of the old-school alarm clock ringing must rank as one of the most annoying noises you’ll ever encounter. Sure, the advent of the clock radio meant that you could wake up to the sultry sounds of your local smooth-jazz station, but this remains a fairly brutish way to wake up in the modern era.

Today you’ll find an endless variety of ways to improve your reentry into the conscious world. The Philips HF3470, for instance, wakes you not with a blaring klaxon but with light that slowly brightens, mimicking the natural rise of the sun (only not so early). Numerous other alarms also slowly raise the volume of whatever music you’d like--MP3 tunes, or even Internet radio--to more gently rouse you from sleep, and bedside devices like the Chumby (sadly en route to going out of business) can offer up the news, weather, and Facebook updates as soon as you open your eyes. The most recent upgrade to the waking experience comes in the form of sleep-tracking systems like the Zeo, which monitor your REM cycles and wake you up when you’re out of deep sleep.

Rearview Mirrors

Who would’ve thought that the simple act of seeing behind you while you’re driving would be ground zero for some of the automotive world’s biggest convenience upgrades? The first big advance: Autodimming mirrors measure the brightness of the high beams blazing behind you, and use an electrochromic system to tint the glass instantly, dimming the reflection and cutting out the glare. That can save your eyes, but another major advance, the backup camera, can save your bumper. Nothing fancy here--a small video camera next to your license plate shows you exactly what’s behind you, making tight parking jobs almost trivially easy and eliminating from your vocabulary the phrase “How much room do I have?”

Toilets

Pity the American, faced with cold, silent plastic every morning upon entering the bathroom--a brutal way to begin the day, no matter how pleasant the alarm clock (see above) might be.

In Japan, however, technologists have been hard at work in every room of the home, including the bathroom, where smart toilets are now in use in a full 70 percent of households. What’s a smart toilet? Think of a high-tech commode featuring a lid that opens automatically when you approach it, as well as a heated seat, a music player, automatic flushing capability, and bidet features that give your undercarriage a gentle (and warm) spray-down when you’re done. Smart toilets even have a green angle: They can cut toilet paper use by up to 90 percent, according to manufacturer Toto.

Five ways to make your smartphone more secure

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Switch off bluetooth:

Start your Bluetooth only when you have to use it. Change the default setting from 'always on' to off. If you don't, the device looks for other Bluetooth-enabled phones to connect to, which gives hackers, malware and viruses easy access to your personal data. These could wreck your smartphone's operating system, making your device unusable. Always pair or configure your smartphone with a trusted device.

Change passwords frequently:

Protect your smartphone with at least two layers of passwords. This will enhance security and make it tough for a hacker to crack it. Set a password lock for your mobile phone as well as SIM. In the case of the latter, the phone will ask for the password if it is stolen and a new SIM card is being inserted.

After a few trials, the phone will lock itself and become temporarily unusable. A pass code to lock your screen will ensure that no one steals information from your phone in your absence. Never use simple numbers like 3333 or 1234 or your date of birth as codes.

You must never share your password with anyone and, more importantly, change it periodically. Use different passwords for all your accounts. Do not use the same user name and password to log in to an app, your e-mail and your Net banking account.

Use only secure connections :

Be wary of free Wi-Fi hotspots. These may be convenient, but they can also be a breeding ground for spyware, malware and viruses, which can access and steal information from your phone. If it's essential to use such a connection, avoid shopping, bank-related work or transacting through your credit or debit card. Besides, you should always check the source before you download any file on your phone.

You should also install and enable remote services on your smartphone. Opt for credible anti-virus software, preferably one provided by the manufacturer, like BlackBerry Protect for BlackBerry handsets. Keep the security software, operating system and apps updated and run periodic checks to upgrade them. This will safeguard them from new variants of spyware and viruses.

Build a back-up:

All smartphones offer data back-up services since everyone uses his or her phone as a storage device. You should back up your data at least once a fortnight, depending on the amount that is being accumulated. You can do so by connecting your smartphone to your computer either through a software that offers this option or by copying your documents, pictures, music and other files to your PC. So, if your phone gets stolen or lost, you will at least have all the crucial information at your fingertips.