Google regularly contends that well-targeted advertising is valuable to the end user. Facebook promises that its advertising technology will allow levels of refined targetting that even Google has yet to muster, thanks to all the information people willingly give the company about themselves. While computer graphics and animation specialists may have moved past the uncanny valley, advertising targetting lags behind. Washington Post reporter Rachel Beckman had to put up with ads promising to trim down any love handles. After complaining, those ads were removed and the site changed its policy towards aggravating fatties. But now that's she's changed her relationship status from engaged to married, did Facebook greet her with mazel tovs?Nope. Think ads for fertility treatments. Sex sells, especially at less than one dollar per thousand impressions, with men getting offers of casual sex and women offered appeals to body image issues and baby lust. If I were a brand looking to maintain a family-friendly image, I'd be less worried about being placed next to raunchy photos posted by Facebook users, and more worried about sharing space with other, less demure advertisers — if only because click-through rates are bound to suffer in comparison if you don't mix in a little tits and ass.

With support for Mac users, a new Facebook widget and an instant messaging application, There.com is hoping to breathe some life into its 3D virtual world which has gone largely unnoticed for years since its launch in 2003. If publicity could support a business model, Second Life might not be the largely empty libertarian paradise it is today. Google's new entry Lively, on the other hand, has also struggled with adopting users — possibly because it refuses to cater to any interests that aren't G-rated. The question remains as to whether any 3D simulacrum that isn't explicitly for gaming has much attraction to all but introverted shut-ins and avant kinksters. With family-friendly rules to keep the virtual pimps and hustlers off the polygonal streets, There.com might just succeed in finally reaching a broadening demographic: Parents so scared, they'd rather keep their teens cooped up at home and nervously trying to interact with crushes online when not reading the Twilight series of chaste teen romance novels featuring abstinent vampires or getting dragged to dad's Promise Keepers meetings.

After too much math, Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners estimates that Facebook earns between $28 million and $42 million allowing its users to buy icons as gifts for each other. Lightspeed came up with the revenue numbers by watching how much users spent on the icons for a week and then multiplying that number by 73.3. Uh, why not 52? Because Facebook Gift sales go up during the holidays, just like real useless merchandise. We'll let Liew explain the rest of his math, below. Bring your coffee:

Imitation is the soul of flattery, and the engine of Silicon Valley. Whatever can be copied, will be — especially when the copiers are pals. After a redesign, Facebook has made its status-update feature more prominent. It now asks users, "What are you doing right now? A sharp-eyed reader notes that those words are eerily similar to Twitter's "What are you doing?" We wonder if this will pose any problems for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's newfound friendship with Twitter founder Ev Williams.It shouldn't. Copycat wording aside, no one actually uses Twitter to tell their friends what they're doing. If Twitter updated its site to match user behavior, the question would be: "What are you complaining about? What aspect of your business do you wish to promote? Which URL do you wish to send? What jejune utterance do you wish to share with people who aren't actually your friends?"

The soon-to-be-shuttered Yahoo Mash is not Yahoo's first failed social network. It's also not its second, third, or fourth. It took one whole hand for us to count Big Purple's failed attempts to get social, either through mergers or in-house development, below.

Yahoo community manager Matt Warburton sent out the following message to members of the company's experimental social network Yahoo Mash: "Thank you for trying out our Mash Beta service. We hope you had fun with it. Please note that we will shut down Mash on September 29, 2008. As a result, your current profile on Mash will no longer be available." It's an embarrassing end for Yahoo Mash, which only launched last October. But it's not as embarrassing as its beginning, when Yahoo felt it had to promote the site via Facebook message.

Aaron Sorkin is indeed working on a Facebook movie — which Valleywag readers think should star Superbad's Michael Cera — but not with Facebook's permission, says a company flack. "We are routinely approached by writers and filmmakers interested in telling the Facebook story. We are certainly flattered by the attention and interest, but at this point, have not agreed to cooperate with any film project." Probably the main reason Facebook wants no part of Sorkin's movie is because he's basing his screenplay on author Ben Mezrich's forthcoming book, which according to published excerpts, seems to be about as sympathetic to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as Thunderball was to Adolpho Celi. (Photo by Getty Images)

Why would anyone not think Aaron Sorkin is working on a movie about Facebook? "You can't handle the truth!" That's the line Sorkin penned for Jack Nicholson in 1992's A Few Good Men. Nicholson might well have been speaking to some of our readers, who reacted poorly to the news that the West Wing writer was working on a movie about Mark Zuckerberg's creation. One begged us to uncover the fraud: "The BBC, the Guardian and New York Magazine are all over the totally fake-seeming Aaron Sorkin movie about Facebook. Please get to the bottom of this horrible joke." Sorry, you'll have to handle this: Sorkin himself confirmed that he is indeed planning a movie about how Zuckerberg and his Harvard classmates created Facebook.Rather, Sorkin's publicist, Joy Fehily, tells us, on his behalf. Or whoever answers her email. With all the layers of secretaries and managers and representatives in Hollywood, you can never tell. Yesterday, Sorkin's agent's assistant issued a nondenial, before politely informing us, "I have to hang up on you now." Likewise, the skeptics will have to hang up on any remaining doubts that Sorkin is behind this movie. Really, could anyone else do the movie? Sorkin is the master of the office drama, picking up on the details that make an inside-baseball story at once believable to insiders and entertaining to outsiders. If it had been anyone but Sorkin, we would have scoffed, too.

Officially, Facebook is treating the onslaught of viruses piggybacking on the social network's popularity as a very, very serious matter. We're talking Sheryl Sandberg serious. Facebook's press statement reads: "We are investigating every report, removing false content, blocking bogus links and addressing the concerns of our users. These efforts have limited the affected users to a small percentage of those on Facebook.” The unofficial response from cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, posted on CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook profile, is much more fun:

Both top social networks Facebook and MySpace redesigned their sites this summer, but while we prefer the look and feel of Facebook — isn't that nice? — so far only MySpace's redesign has actually earned its company more cash. ComScore reports MySpace served the most ad views on the Web last month. Analyst Rich Greenfield of Pali Research says MySpace was able to charge major brands like Sprint, Verizon and Wendy's more than it used to for many of them.Why? Greenfield says the site's redesign, which put a huge ad space at the top of the site's home page, allows MySpace to "reach far beyond the 'social media' advertising category and to target far larger portal advertising budgets." Wired reports that MySpace also now charges advertisers extra for Friday ads on the homepage, because that's when film companies want to push new movies. Facebook, which has a much cleaner, more user-friendly interface, doesn't allow similar site takeovers and in fact removed homepage banners as part of its redesign. The difference between the sites is simple: MySpace is trying to make a buck, right here, right now — and Facebook wants to find an innovative new advertising product so it can be bigger than Google.

While Yahoo's thinking of moving some of its operations to Omaha, Nebraska, Facebook plans to double its U.K. sales and marketing teams in London, the third most expensive city in the world. Facebook will increase its staff on the island to about 40 as part of its push to get European advertisers hooked on its new "engagement ads," the ads where advertisers pay Facebook for pointing out to users how their friends are interacting with the advertiser's brands. Facebook commercial director for Europe Blake Chandlee will remain in charge. Just a thought, but shouldn't Facebook ascertain whether domestic marketers have any interest in engagement ads before pushing them abroad? Some marketers say they're approaching them only with caution. (Photo by Ian Muttoo)

Is "West Wing" writer Aaron Sorkin making "The Facebook Movie," as someone going by his name on Facebook claims? I called Aaron Sorkin's agent, Ari Emanuel — yes, the inspiration for Jeremy Piven's character in "Entourage" — and got his assistant. She said: "I'm not denying anything. I just can't comment for the company." Meanwhile, New York got a an emailed confirmation from producer Scott Rudin. Email? People, Facebook messages are totally the way to go here.

Using social networks to find sex only make kids these days look sluttier. The reality? A new study of 2,000 MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo users aged 16 to 24 finds they're not happy about the reputation. A full 69 percent believe the media portray them unfairly as "sex maniacs." Those surveyed will be happy with the study's results:It shows that, yes, kids today are using posts and pokes to flirt, but they're also using social networking sites to share sex ed with each other. What's not to like about a new generation of honest, well-informed sluts? And with 93 percent using social-network communities regularly, at least they're faithful to the sites that bring them together.

David Maestri created Facebook's most successful widget, Mob Wars, but now he's in legal trouble because he developed and launched the app while working for the company that would become the Social Gaming Network.Sources tell VentureBeat that Maestri's Mob Wars, a role-playing game for the Facebook platform, earns its creator $1 million a month off its 2,505,698 monthly active users, mostly by selling in-game player upgrades for real world cash. On top of that income, research firm DeveloperAnalytics says Mob Wars could make another $22,000 month selling ads because its users load the app's pages around 60 times a day. Trouble is, Maestri developed and launched Mob Wars in January, before quit software developer Freewebs in February. After watching Maestri rake in the cash for months, Freewebs — now called Social Games Network — finally sued Maestri on August 11, alleging breach of contract, breach of duty, misappropriation of trade secrets and interference with business relations. Maestri told VentureBeat that "Mob Wars is my creation and the legal process is moving forward."

Aaron Sorkin — the guy who wrote films A Few Good Men, The American President andCharlie Wilson's War as well as TV shows West Wing, Sports Night and Studio 60 — is working with Sony and the producer of No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood to write The Facebook Movie. Either that, or there's a very dedicated Fake Aaron Sorkin out there, who's created a detailed Facebook page — going so far as to respond each wall post — in order to fool us all. Writes Sorkin — or his imposter:

PALO ALTO — (Ed.'s note: Please welcome Fake Sheryl Sandberg, Valleywag's newest contributor.) I left Google for this. What was I thinking? Sure, Larry and Sergey were adolescents who built themselves a candy-colored playground. But Zuck makes them look like old men. Mr. Adidas rolled into the office around 10 this morning — early for him — and asked, "So, are we throwing a party?" "What for?" I asked. "Sheryl, didn't you see my status update?" You know, I used to give status updates to Larry Summers when I was his chief of staff. In Washington. The other Washington.Anyway, Zuck starts gushing about how great it is Facebook now has 100 million users. I'm thinking, "Yeah, great, we're buying unlimited photo storage for 100 million freeloaders. Have you ever done the bandwidth bill on that, kid?" But he won't shut up. I close my eyes, breathe, put on my happy face, and reply, "Yes, Mark, that's an amazing milestone. We really should celebrate it appropriately. What do you think of Joe putting on a wine-and-cheese reception this evening, like he used to do for me at Google?" Zuckerberg's face darkens. "No!" he shouts like a toddler. "We're doing a toga party!" My smile stays pasted on. I calculate the risks. "Of course, Mark! This is your company. I understand how important the culture is." I get on the phone to Joe Desimone and tell him — surprise! — we're throwing a party. He can cater for 500 on no notice, right? Mark leads his children's crusade out to the park. I stay behind to rework the Q3 spreadsheets. After he's done cheering them with a megaphone about how they're changing the world, they head straight to the cafeteria building. There's a keg of beer there. No, there are three kegs. No, five. I can't dodge them anymore, so I walk in and survey the roomful of kids in bedsheets that came from God knows where. They're all 23. They're all dating each other. They're all hopped up on beer and Red Bull that our shareholders paid for. Suddenly, I feel claustrophobic. I can't face these brats. I glide to the bathroom, lock the door, and do the deep-breathing exercises my yoga master Kellison taught me. I steel myself and walk back out. Next thing I know, that joker Dave Morin is wrapping me in a toga. At last, I laugh, while making mental notes about which of these overrated twentysomethings I'm going to fire, in which order.

PALO ALTO — How was Facebook's toga party, held to celebrate the company's 100 millionth user? We couldn't sit back and just read the status updates. So we sent a Valleywag spy deep inside the social network's headquarters. At last, the answer to the question, "What do you get when you mix 5 kegs of beer and a case of champagne with hundreds of geeks?" Alas, we just missed Zuckerberg — he's not known as a big drinker. But even COO Sheryl Sandberg, known for quashing every sign of fun at the company, showed, and grudgingly allowed herself to be wrapped up in a toga. The photos:

First Facebook told the makers of Scrabulous that if they changed the game board to make it different from Scrabble, we'll let you back in. Then they said something to the effect of: "Well you can only offer Scrabulous in India." Now, Facebook's really done it. Possibly sloshed and definitely drunk on power from the toga party, they have officially banned Scrabulous worldwide after rights-owners Hasbro's and Mattel's sustained legal whining. Scared you might actually have to work? Try your word fix at Yahoo Games. [AP]

We invite devoted Defamer readers to think back now, to almost two years ago to the day. The U.S. dollar dominated global free markets. Whitney Houston was in the middle of a liquor-store-robbery crime spree that left dozens dead. And a little show by the name of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip had captured the imaginations of the American working class, caught up weekly in its by-turns harrowing and inspirational tales from the front lines of the network sketch comedy wars. If you're still with us, you'll too recall Defaker, the Defamer-inspired mock gossip site that attempted to promote the series on NBC.com by opening itself up to visitor comments. Several harsh insights followed ("Aaron Sorkin, I'll be seeing you soon! Posted by: Crack | September 21, 2006 08:30 PM" springs to mind), the site was quickly shuttered, and the ill-conceived exercise was chocked up by the lauded series creator as yet another example of the ugliness that will inevitably spring forth from the anonymous blogging wilds.We review all this as introduction to quite possibly the most exciting online development to roll across our virtual desktops in quite some time. Aaron Sorkin, or someone who has gone to a great deal of effort to convince others he is Aaron Sorkin, has emerged from his self-imposed, blogophobic exile to openly embrace the social networking phenomenon known as Facebook. From his introductory letter entitled, Aaron Sorkin & The Facebook Movie:

From a tipster: Omnipresent Facebook evangelist Dave Morin shows up at his company's impromptu toga party to celebrate the social networks' 100 millionth user. To the left, CEO Mark Zuckerberg; on the right, togaless Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz. Can you think of a better caption? Leave your suggestion in the comments; the best one will become the post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: "Bathroom line turns ugly at Gnomedex," by WagCurious.