Facebook Apologizes; Valuation Affected? and Why Isn’t It On The Profile?

The big Facebook news today is that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for the company’s handling of the Beacon launch. The net result is that Beacon is now opt-in though it’s still data collecting for everyone UNLESS you specifically tell them not to using this link.

But WHY ISN’T this on the member’s profiles as an announcement. When I login, I see nothing about Beacon nor about these new options for privacy. So it’s easy to apologize in a closet but why not stand up and let all of your customers know? Naturally 1% (maybe) of Facebook customers read the FB blog. So it’s a good attempt but doesn’t win me over.

As for the valuation issue, since MS was banking on this from the conference call I listened in on, there’s certainly some financial issues that will still need to be addressed. 

I guess I need to update the through the years post about Facebook.

Some additional good reads on the apology:

• Om gets NYC-style fired up and questions exactly what the change means
• Dave McClure who is the #1 facebook fan believes it should still be opt-out (I haven’t commented on my thoughts yet)
• Donna says the apology wasn’t good enough and we went from "revolutionary new ad product" to something less revolutionary

side note: I hate the term mea culpa. Let’s not use it anymore kthx.