Remember back in October, when Microsoft valued Facebook at $15 billion and decided to invest $240 million for a small stake in the privately-held company? Perhaps not the most prudent financial move. Yesterday, alleged code-stealing founder Mark Zuckerberg had to personally apologize for the unmitigated disaster that is Beacon, his social networking site's "groundbreaking" advertising platform. Zuck went so far as to tell users they could actually turn the damn thing off if they wanted.

Problems with Beacon, which blasts updates of the products and services your friends are using into your Facebook feed with the assumption that you are a simple-minded sheep and will, say drink Sprite because your virtual friend does (although, to be fair, this is essentially the model behind Facebook; why else would you be on it?), mostly revolve around privacy concerns; many (including the 70,000 individuals who launched a protest of it via MoveOn.org), felt that Facebook was not so forthcoming with what it planned to do with the information it gathered. Ethical concerns are certainly warranted, given that Facebook essentially lied about whether users could opt out of Beacon if they so desired, a move which led to one major advertiser, Coca-Cola, pulling its support from the program altogether.

It's not all Hellfire and Brimstone, though: unique visits to the site actually jumped 20 percent in November, mainly from people hoping to get a peek at what dildos their "friends" were purchasing for the holiday season.