• VentureBeat, Monday, November 5, 2007 11 AM

Ahead of tomorrow's highly anticipated announcement from Facebook, VentureBeat has a few new details. The new ad platform's code-name is Pandemic, but this report details a new set of group advertising tools called "Mullets."

Facebook plans to remove its "sponsored groups" section, replacing it with pages advertises can buy allowing them to upload ads or interactive widgets created by Facebook. Many of these sponsored widgets will compete directly with existing third-party applications; for example, Facebook might encourage users to download an ad-sponsored music app similar to iLike. Advertisers can then pay extra for Mullet actions to appear on friends' news feeds. As VentureBeat says, "large Facebook application developers like Slide, RockYou, iLike and Flixster," fearing competition from Facebook's pending advertising initiative, "may have embraced the Google-led OpenSocial movement so fervently earlier this week because they learned of these developments."

Meanwhile, TechCrunch reports that Facebook is also preparing a new way for users to tell their friends what they buy online. If you go to a travel site and purchase a trip, publishers will provide a button allowing users to alert friends of their purchase using the news feed. VentureBeat had no news on any cookie or keyword-based tracking services, which are expected to be part of tomorrow's announcement.

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