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Source:CenterNetworks -

Companies offering advertising for 3rd party Facebook applications is hot. Last week I spoke with VideoEgg about their Facebook ad solution and today I spoke with one of the newest players in this market, Lookery. Lookery is founded by Scott Rafer, former CEO of MyBlogLog. To learn more about Lookery (both for the Web and for Facebook), I poked Scott for an interview and our discussion is below.

Allen: What is Lookery?

Scott: Lookery for the Web (our new service) is an ad network that fixes the economic problem of social networks: great user profiling and so-so inventory for advertisers. We make it safe and easy for social networks to distribute their data as targeting information outside their sites, in order to make money on web sites that have great inventory and little or no targeting information.

Allen: Why Facebook?

Scott: We got started with Lookery for Facebook because I kept hearing from people that they wanted to buy and/or publish traditional marketing campaigns in Facebook apps. We saw demand and just went for it.

Allen: Can you explain what Lookery for the Web and Lookery for Facebook is, and what are the differences?

Scott: Lookery for Facebook is a traditional display advertising network that runs exclusively on Facebook applications. Like all other Facebook-only networks, we exist at Facebook’s whim. We’ll do very well by our Facebook application publishers as long as they let us, but they have a lot more data than we do to run a network on their site. Lookery for the Web is a service in which we’re building a unique market position, building out revenue programs for content publishers and sharing back to social networks. Bridging across networks lets us add more value and more unique value.

Allen: How does Lookery for the Web compare to other similar services that will be launching soon, ie.. Google’s new rumored service?

Scott: I’m still waiting for GDrive, so it’s tough to comment. The critical issue for us is that user anonymity is strictly maintained and that our services are easy to sell. The vast detail underlying behavioral advertising both requires very sophisticated advertising buyers and puts user privacy at grave risk. We’re sticking solely to Age, Sex, and Location in order to provide concrete value to marketers while holding no data that puts users at risk.

Allen: How does the service work?

Scott: It’s a big third-party cookie system with APIs for adding profile info and for using demographic targeting.

Allen: Are the ads across Facebook or only within the apps that 3rd party developers create?

Scott: Only in the 3rd party apps.

Allen: How large is the Facebook advertising market pegged to be?

Scott: Third-party application traffic is easier to talk about. It seems to be a few billion pages a day, about 10% of Facebook’s total. The apps should generate a tenth of Facebook’s revenue as they become a fifth of its traffic over time.

Allen: What pricing models work with Lookery?

Scott: We optimize for eCPM, using whatever models we can to maximize it.

Allen: Who are your competitors?

Scott: It’s not clear how we stack up against the behavioral networking players for our web advertising. That’s a field rife with co-opetition, which we’ll likely be part of in the normal way. The only competitor anyone should consider on Facebook is Facebook themselves. If they decide to be an ad network directly (instead of a tax), they’ll win. Until that’s resolved, nothing else matters.

Allen: I met with VideoEgg last week and discussed their Facebook ad platform for app developers - how does Looker compare to VideoEgg’s offering?

Scott: Publishers manage their advertising as a pyramid. A small number of very valuable ads at the top and a large number of "remnant" ads at the bottom. The VE guys are doing a beautiful job of taking over the top, and we’re trying to raise people’s expectations about the bottom.

Allen: Can you speak about the analytics/reporting behind Lookery?

Scott: To date, it’s nothing exciting. With Dave Cancel’s background as founder/CTO of compete.com and my experience at MyBlogLog, we’re looking to change that.

Allen: What’s the team makeup? Funded/unfunded?

Scott: There’s three fulltimers (Dave Cancel, Rex Dixon, and me) plus some contractors including Todd Sawicki. There’s some angel funding coming in, though it’s not the focus yet.

Allen: What’s coming in the next 3 months for Lookery?

Scott: Getting Lookery for the Web to critical mass. Please drop our JS on CenterNetworks if you get the chance.

Thanks for your time Scott!

Source:CenterNetworks -

b5media announces the launch of Spekked.com, a destination for the best television and movie news and information on the web.

TORONTO, ON- October 8, 2007:  b5media, Inc. (www.b5media.com ), global new media giant, today announces the launch of a new entertainment news gateway Spekked (www.spekked.com), a destination for a wide variety of television and film content. Spekked is a destination for the latest information about television shows, from 24 to VH1, and other entertainment and movie news.  Spekked consolidates the content from dozens of individual communities from b5media’s Entertainment Channel into one easy-to-navigate destination.

Maintaining Spekked are veteran b5media entertainment editors Arieanna Schweber and Leora Zellman.  Arieanna notes that "Spekked blog communities are already some of the top destinations on the web for TV and entertainment enthusiasts. Spekked makes it quick and easy to discover what’s going on across all our sites."  Spekked will feature current news, spoilers, and analysis from Spekked writers, and will be a gateway to further participate in the communities surrounding each show. 

CEO of b5media, Jeremy Wright, says of the Spekked launch, "Spekked is a fantastic look into b5media’s amazing Entertainment blogs, featuring the best content from across the network, showcasing daily blogs and bloggers and bringing together great content from around the web for the benefit of our readers."

Interested media may contact Arieanna Schweber (arieanna@b5media.com 604-782-2417) for more information or to schedule an interview.

About b5media
b5media (www.b5media.com) is a global new media network that features a wide variety of subjects ranging from entertainment and news to technology and sports. With content written by passionate people that attract more than nine million visitors a month, the Toronto-based company is among the world’s largest blogging/new media networks.  b5media received venture capital financing in late-2006 from JLA Ventures and Brightspark Ventures.

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this post may not necessarily represent the views of CenterNetworks. This press release was provided in its entirety by b5media.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 7:54 am and is filed under b5media, Press Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.