I just learned about a new web service called Optimizer from a company called Frosmo that puts an interesting new spin on web analytics. Rather than the endless traffic-based percentages and counts provided by most web analytics software, Optimizer will deliver you a demographic profile of your visitors: age, occupation, location, job title, and lots more. How does it perform such magic?
Optimizer goes further than this too. It can allow you to greet visitors to your site who have Facebook profiles by name, and even tailor the content they see to match their interests, which you as the website operator will also know. This is a concept that has been discussed forever, but rarely implemented. Facebook, which reportedly has two million websites already enabled to allow Facebook users to flag or "like" them, is setting the stage to make this a common occurrence.
Consumer implications of this are clear and huge. Business-to-business implications are less clear. If we acknowledge the rapid blurring of lines between our personal and professional lives, however, it seems quite possible that B2B sites will soon start sporting Facebook "like" buttons, and competing to build the biggest Facebook audiences with the best demographics. It's not crazy to think of these Facebook aggregate profiles of being the next generation of BPA and ABC statements -- everything you want to know about your online audience from a trusted, third-party source. It's indeed possible that all the energy and passion that has been poured into achieving top search result rankings will now shift to getting "liked" the most times by Facebook users.
Like it or not.