I wonder if anyone ever pays attention to the ads Myspace shoves down
its users’ throats? Normally people complain about how ugly it is, how
it allows annoying users to post annoying things like flash audio on
their profiles, how many malware and security threats it serves out,
etc. I’d like to complain about its advertisements.

Their ads make no sense. It’s like they just throw them out there trying
to reel in a fish. Take a look at href="http://www.myspace.com/moonkhan">my Myspace profile. You’ll
see that they know a lot about me - I’m married, I live in Chicago, I’m
a college grad in math and computers, I’m into lots of music, books and
movies, and most importantly it knows that I have a lot of friends and
what they are interested in, too.

So what kind of ads does it serve to me? Dating ads (with really really
hot chicks on them, btw). Go to college ads. Ads about MTV punk bands
that I clearly don’t listen to.

If I surf to one of many MP3 torrent sites the ads they serve are Google
AdSense targetted to the type of music I’m pirating. Hell, they even
serve me images of alleged real young ladies on webcams in Hoffman
Estates, IL. This is a Swedish torrent site that doesn’t even know
my name, mind you. And the best Myspace can do is serve a college dating
ad to a married college grad? Rupert Murdoch paid half a billion dollars
for garbage.