Cataloging the Adpocalypse

[ex_uniquewo]

Ad-sponsored Accounts on LiveJournal

• Ad-sponsored accounts were introduced on March 8, 2006. They were first called Sponsored+ accounts then renamed Plus accounts. Plus account users agree to display ads on their journals and to see ads on site pages in exchange for more benefits. Ads on Plus users' journals are seen by all but Paid and Permanent users. In April 2006, Plus accounts became the default account. In June 2006, this level was extended to communities and also became the new default account. In January 2007, some official communities, including news, were converted to the Plus level. On March 12, 2008, Basic accounts stopped being available as new accounts and Plus accounts became the only type of free accounts that one could create.
• In March 2008, a new type of ad-sponsored account - sponsored accounts - was introduced to the Cyrillic portion of LiveJournal. Sponsored account users agree to display ads and use a layout advertising a specific brand in exchange for the benefits of Paid accounts.
• On August 28, 2008, The creation of Basic accounts was re-enabled in exchange for Basis accounts displaying ads to logged-out users.

Ads on LiveJournal Pages & Ad-Sponsored Features and Services

• In September 2006, Sponsored communities i.e. communities paid for by an advertiser for a limited amount of time and sponsored features i.e. features developed with a third party company were introduced. Logged-out, basic and plus users began to see ads on pages talking about sponsored features.
• In January 2007, ads were also put on the homepage and shown to logged-out and plus users. As time went by, ads were put on other site pages.
• Sponsored styles i.e. layouts advertising a product or a brand appeared in May 2007. Sponsored mood themes and sponsored virtual gifts appeared three months later.
• Sponsored content - communities, style, mood themes and virtual gifts - is visible to all users.

Data-gathering Related to Ads on LiveJournal

• When Plus accounts were introduced, data-gathering for ad-targeting purposes appeared too. When one views a Plus account, demographics, interests and public content are collected to select which ads must be displayed to the user.
• When sponsored communities were introduced, tracking cookies and web bugs began to appear. Their use was later extended to other sponsored content.