Facebook prepping targeted ads

The big question surrounding Facebook is its ability to generate some serious cash without alienating its massive user base. Now the WSJ reports that Facebook is working on a new advertising approach that hopes to become the Adsense of social networking. In essense, it would target ads inside the “news feeds” on a wide variety of criteria from age, gender, location, favorite activities and preferred music, to name a few. And the hope is to take it a step further to broaden the targeting based on the preferences of a user’s friends. Like Google, all the ads would be self-service — no salespeople required. (WSJ sub. req.)