socialmediocrity

Babelgum, the online TV service, have just launched a FREE application for the iPhone.

I like it.

What’s really great is that it showcases a number of shows through the medium of highlights. Which makes it all the more accessible, given the iPhone’s small-screen format. As much as I like the fact I can get video on the iPhone, I still can’t imagine myself watching a full-length 30-minute show on it.

And with limited opportunity to make use of the iPhone’s other features, they have a nice mechanism to refresh the highlights clips. Shake it to refresh the list!

All in all the UI really stikes a chord with me too. It feels quite quirky, but very much sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the app. As the TV ad says, this could change things forever! Or at least, I get to watch some of the best comedy clips from broadcasters like the Beeb while I’m at work, and for free.

In what appears to be another recent change to the ad guidelines, it is now acceptable to advertise alcoholic beverages on Facebook.

Clause 12 refers

Ads for Alcoholic Beverages

• Adverts must all be targeted to people 21 years old or older in the US, 19 years old or older in Canada, 18 years old or older in the UK, and 21 years old or older everywhere else. All Facebook Pages viewer restrictions must be set at 21+ regardless of the country they are in or targeted to. In the case where a user’s age cannot be determined, the advert cannot be displayed to the user in question.
• It is recommended that the ad creative contain text that promotes drinking responsibility. Acceptable examples include “Drink Responsibly” and “Drink Smart.”
• No ad should include content that might appeal to (or mislead) minors by implying that the consumption of alcoholic beverages is fashionable or the accepted course of behavior for those who are underage.
• No ad creative promoting alcoholic beverages should include any person under the age of 21 or be suggestive of the presence of minors.
• Adverts may not portray or promote intoxication. Adverts should not induce people to consume alcohol in excess, make references to the intoxicating effects of alcohol, depict activities that encourage excessive consumption or that encourage drinking at a rapid rate, or suggest the strength of the alcoholic beverage being advertised.
• Adverts may not promote any giveaways as a reward for purchasing the alcoholic product.

Although they make some attempt to retain some degree of decency, they don’t really go any further than the law in the retrospective territories.

So the breaking news is, it’s OK to sell alcohol to adults, according to Zuckerberg.

Another means of attracting advertising dollars in a time of economic crisis. How much longer do we think the stance against tobacco products, adult material, and firearms will hold out?

If you take the time to read Facebook’s ad guidelines you could be forgiven for thinking that they were being overly-protective of their users. In amongst the normal “nothing illegal” clauses, there are a number of more interesting, and perhaps intriguing clauses, that perhaps say more about the founders ideals than any long-term stand against good old fashioned good fun.

Clause 9 gives us a list of stuff we shouldn’t do:

We do not accept advertising referencing, facilitating or prompting the following:

• Tobacco products
• Ammunition, firearms, paintball guns, bb guns, or weapons of any kind
• Gambling, including without limitation any online casino, sports books, bingo, or poker
• Ringtones
• Software downloads, freeware, or shareware
• Scams, illegal activity and/or illegal contests, pyramid schemes, or chain letters
• Uncertified pharmaceutical products
• Adult friend finders or dating sites with a sexual emphasis
• Adult toys, videos, or other adult products
• Web cams or surveillance equipment
• Web-based non-accredited colleges that offer degrees
• Inflammatory religious content
• Politically religious agendas and/or any known associations with hate, criminal and/or terrorist activities
• Political content that exploits political agendas or uses “hot button” political issues for commercial use regardless of whether the advertiser has a political agenda
• Hate speech, whether directed at an individual or a group, and whether based upon the race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, sexual orientation or language of such individual or group
• Content that advocates against any organization, person, or group of people, with the exception of candidates running for public office
• Content that depicts a health condition in a derogatory or inflammatory way or misrepresents a health condition in any way
• “Get rich quick” and other money making opportunities that offer compensation for little or no investment, including money making schemes positioned as alternatives to part-time or full-time employment

I find the third bullet the most interesting, as the more time I spend on Facebook, the mire it appears as though it is jointly sponsored by Sky and Betfair – Betfair Casino, Betfair TaiKai, Betfair Sports betting. You name it, Betfair are advertising it. I guess they didn;t read as far as bullet 3 when they accepted the ads.

As fors software downloads, although they are treated in a separate and expanded section within the guidelines, this too is somewhat overlooked. I know for a fact of at least one advertiser whose service requires you to download their client, and yet they seem to have had their ads accepted. And does this exclude the likes of Skype, who currently require you to download software? Presumably Firefox couldn’t promote themselves if they wanted to, and all those ads for microsoft and MSN. Do their sites really not have software downloads on them?

It would be great if the guidlines and rules were so simple as to write them down in a few bullet points, but it seems as though they are verging on the uncompetitive if some online casinos are more equal than others, which appears to be the case right now.