News Article #2

"Facebook Makes a Friend on Wall Street" By Seth Sutel
January 30, 2008 7:48 am
TechNewsWorld
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Facebook-Makes-a-Friend-on-Wall-Street-61438.html

TheFacebook.com began as an online community comprised of college students enabling them to chat, join groups, share photos, etc. TheFacebook appeared to be an immediate success and apparently this continues to remain true, as reported in the news story "Facebook Makes a Friend on Wall Street" by Seth Sutel early this morning.

The online community, which has fairly recently opened membership eligibility to everyone, not limiting itself to college students, now includes hundreds of available applications allowing the users to individualize their page and providing new ways for the users to interact with one another. The latest application? It's called "SeenThis?" and its sponsored by the Wall Street Journal Online, Facebook's newest "friend." According to Sutel, the feature "will allow readers to see which Journal stories are popular among that user's Facebook friends," serving as a type of recommendation to the user, hopefully prompting them to visit the article online or purchase a copy of the Journal, a method of advertising that has been proven successful by companies such as Amazon.com. Sutel reports that Daniel Bernard, the general manger for Wall Street Journal Online explained that each Facebook user will have to opt to have the application; it will not start immediately on its own.

Another application that will be available is "widget" defined by Sutel as "a small, self-contained application that does a specific task." In this case it will show "video and other material from Cnet and other providers." This widget will be visible to others who visit the pages of those who do use the widget, hopefully enticing even more users to add the application.

I think its a great way for the Wall Street Journal online to advertise. It's helpful for its users and it will probably also be beneficial for the company. As a user of Facebook, however, I'm a bit overwhelmed at the hundreds of different applications that are available. I have even stopped using them. I think it would have been more effective if it had come along a bit earlier in the game.