Facebook Thinks They Can Out-Google Google Via Atlas

Do you know what "people-based marketing" is? Facebook's Atlas ad server is coining the term to make it seem like it's not tracking you, but it is. By taking your Facebook info and using it to market directly to you, Atlas also thinks it can outperform Google's cookie-based system.

Atlas uses your gender, location, and age info from Facebook to push ads in apps and on websites. That sidesteps your usage history and gets right to who you are.

With Google's cookie-based system, your history matters, which can be hit-and-miss. Visit a site not necessarily in your age/gender wheelhouse, and things start getting a bit odd with ads.

Atlas is Facebook's first foray into proper ads, especially on your mobile devices. Speaking to GigaOM, a Facebook spokesperson said "We are able to serve and measure ads based on real people because we have the Facebook Identity whereas Google relies on the cookie."

And now we all start to understand why Google was so keen on Google+ being a thing.

It's also curious timing for Atlas to be announcing their rebirth. With Ello, who many in the press are dubbing the anti-Facebook (but not me), your info isn't gathered or even acknowledged. Ello aims to use consumer-based monetization rather than use your info for ad space, like other completely free services do.

Still, Facebook and Atlas think they can outshine Google on the back of 1 billion user profiles. Are they right? If the ads you're starting to see in apps and on websites from Atlas make sense to you, then yes.

Via: GigaOM