Remember the "sponsored groups" for which Facebook charges advertisers $100,000 a month? Those advertiser havens on the social network may soon be supplanted by a new form of advertising, VentureBeat reports. Codenamed "Pandemic," the ads will appear as "stories" — short items that appear on users' profiles — describing the actions Facebook users undertake on third-party websites. One example: a multiplayer game like World of Warcraft might inform a Facebook user's friends that he's reached a new level. Or a music store might inform friends of a recent purchase. The advantage over sponsored groups? The ads will be based on friends' activity, not some generic commercial message. That's the kind of information Facebook users are already looking for on the site, so presumably, the ads will gain a better reception. Or, equally possible, they'll be so creepy Facebook users will start groups on the site to complain about them.

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