• Wired, Thursday, August 21, 2008 12:45 PM

Facebook apparently isn't done trying to get friends to shill products to one another. In an interview with AllFacebook, Tim Kendall, Facebook director of monetization, reveals that, "Marketers will be able to pay to accelerate usage they find valuable, to dial up and down actions that people take on applications," as part of a new social ad scheme set to be unveiled in the next 6 to 12 months.

News Feed already uses an algorithm to calculate who would find a friend's update most interesting, but marketers will now be able to pay for distribution above and beyond what News Feed already provides. This means that if one of your friends loved "Dark Knight" and you get a message about it, Warner Bros. probably paid to have it sent to you.

As Wired says, the algorithm Facebook uses to send news feeds to your friends could just as easily be translated into a marketing tool, with Facebook charging advertisers to get your positive messages about their products sent to as many people as possible. But people go to Facebook to keep tabs on their friends; they don't go to sift through product endorsements broadcasted by marketers.

Read the whole story at Wired »