It has became a very engaging blend of online notice board, private scrapbook, and group communication network. But did you ever pause to wonder why, being all those things, Facebook is free? Given the prevailing comeback, any fast moves by Facebook to monetize its user information could prove disastrous. Today, Facebook is generally an advertising platform. With the quantity of volume they have, they only have to do easy things, Phillips says. For now, Facebooks stockholders are giving Zuckerberg and company masses of time. Folk acquainted with the situation say that you wont see a Facebook IPO this year or next year, but you will see one in 2012. For most of the time, Facebook has limited its business partners to using the info it provides to approach users inside Facebook. Facebook doesn't without delay charge those partners for the advantage, however. Facebook could be using the old crack dealer model--the first puff is free, Edelman says. After app developers and partner Internet sites get hooked, Facebook could start charging for access to its user info, he asserts. Edelman believes that many of Facebooks current business partners would be glad to pay. To marketeers, the Facebook information is doubtless more valuable than the info picked up by other tremendously preferred sites, like Google. Thats because Facebook collects a rich set of personally identifiable info ( PII ) from its user profiles. The private and social detail of Facebooks information could give marketing consultants rare power to find new patrons. It may also know that you're a keen runner who attended a winetasting party last Tues. night. Facebook also collects and makes public the list of folks that are your Facebook chums. I do not think Facebook can get to where they need to be without doing that, Harvards Edelman says. There is not any PII ; We do not need it, so none of that ever touches our system, Wheeler says. Wheeler believes that Facebook, using its wealth of user information, could take an analogous approach. The air around Facebook and its information is so highly charged now that Zuckerberg and company have sound excuse to move carefully in the short term.

So Facebook watches and waits to see where the chips fall in the prevailing policy debate over online privacy. Lots of the website promoting industry wants to be free to control itself, free by a firm set of rules imposed by the Congress or the FTC. Facebooks earlier behaviour has pushed the advertising and regulatory communities toward a clash over privacy.