[6ren]

So expensive, this would need to be targeted extraordinarily well for it to be worthwhile for advertisers. Which is possible, because fb knows so much more about you than even google.

When ads are targeted well enough, they stop being spam, and start becoming a welcome service. The question is whether they have reached that threshold.

[jmillikin]

Unsolicited commercial mail is always spam. If I post a message to my private about my fridge making funny sounds, that doesn't mean I want to receive a FB message from HardwareStore about their appliance selection.

[jQueryIsAwesome]

Its not technically mail (is an internal message system) and you don't hold that strict standard for anything else do you?, e.g. all tv commercials are spam because they show unsolicited commercial information, all billboard are spam...

[pepr]

Actually, yes in my viewpoint pretty much every billboard is spam. I've yet to see a billboard that informed me of something useful to me personally. (Let alone at an appropriate time! Is me driving on a highway an appropriate time to let me know that I should buy something? Hell no.)

[icebraining]

all billboard are spam

Not an unprecedented position: http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/73/Sao_Paulo_A_City_Withou...