Facebook developers make games to sell ads

Facebook developers are increasingly meeting the challenge of getting eyeballs on advertisements by embedding them in computer games, VentureBeat reports.

Two new widget makers, Zynga and the Social Gaming Network, are planning to start developing games for social networking platforms such as Facebook for the purpose of offering advertisers the opportunity to put their ads in front of engaged viewers.

The idea is that advertisers will be able to insert an ad into some visually striking component of free games offered by the developers. It’s a win all around really – advertisers get more people looking at their ads, users get access to free games and the developers get a slice of the advertising revenue.

Another widget maker, Bunchball, is using its online games to collect valuable demographic information. It collects data about people’s behaviour when they play, which it then uses to build games and virtual worlds for the web sites of TV shows and movies.