Another revolution in online advertising?

After last weeks boom with Google's OpenSocial Facebook is returning the new hit by changing the face of brand advertising online and unveiling their ad strategy. So what exactly is so revolutionary, changing or social about it anyway?

Not much really. After discovering banner blindness, marketers have found yet another way to stuff the ads down our throats. But not just any kind of ads - this time they are supposed to be personalized. Gee, thanks for caring.

The pop-up overkill was not enough to prevent annoying flash animations, putting commercials in public toilets and filling our mails/blogs with "customized" ads. Why stop there when there is still so much to be discovered? Now they want to customize the ads to fit our needs by advertising things we like/want. I'm not sure which I dislike more: the "progress" in advertising or the pretension of doing this for the benefit of the users.

We know it's really not about wanting to help you getting what you want, but earning few bucks with things we might like and probably don't need. The consumers don't know what they want anyway, right?

Now I don't know about others, but I certainly don't want anyone scanning my profile to offer me products I might like. If I ever wanted anything like that, I'd invite them over and let them check my closets to find out my favorite underwear brand or ask them for few book recommendations. Luckily I know what I want most of the time and have a temporary solution for the things I don't know. There are always things I don't want to know so please let me have the privilege of keeping it that way.

However there are two things I believe really could make a revolution in online advertising:

• software that would "clean" the websites of advertisements
  
• following a simple yet worldwide successful principle: Less is more.

Well, assuming they really care about the consumer ;)