From the submitted article: "Indeed, Facebook hit a legal roadblock in May, when it reached a tentative settlement in a class-action lawsuit over the use of sponsored stories, one of its most effective advertising tools. In the would-be settlement, the company promised to inform users explicitly that their 'likes' could be used as endorsements for a brand or page, and that they could opt out. By one estimate, it could cost Facebook $103 million in revenue." Yeah, that's the problem Facebook has, that many approaches to leveraging user data to maximize advertising impact may be illegal, off-putting to Facebook users, or both.<p>I have been running AdBlock for a long time on Chrome, and either F. B. Purity or Social Fixer on top of Facebook, and I notice that just since about the time of the Facebook IPO that Facebook advertisements are again showing up as I view my own profile on Facebook. Most but not all of these show up as "sponsored stories." I never like any of the ads. I don't like the "social" ads that mention my friends by name and face (surely without those friends really meaning to suggest to me that I buy the things advertised). I don't like any of the other ads either, and mostly find them completely irrelevant to my interests. I have a friend who used to take elaborate steps to hide keywords in his wall posts (for example, he would use non-ASCII characters to respell words referring to politics or religion), but whether a person does a little or a lot to confuse Facebook, Facebook seems just plain clueless about what kind of ads to serve up, and increasingly clueless about how to provide a satisfactory user experience in general.<p>Prediction: Facebook will go the way of AOL, still being a factor in the industry years from now, but also serving as an example of a company that could never monetize up to the level of the hype surrounding it.