Excerpt from Nate Elliott, Vice President & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research  posted on Allthingsd.com  ” …this affinity data Facebook is collecting is enormously different from the intention data Google has traditionally collected. Think about it: Intent is expressed before a purchase; it’s an indication of what we want. But affinity is typically expressed after a purchase; it’s an indication of how we feel about what we already have. For that reason, affinity data will never predict short-term purchases as well as intent data does. But affinities are based on emotions, and often remain steady for years. That means affinity data does have a valuable role to play in a different kind of marketing: It can power effective brand advertising rather than direct marketing.”  Read the full article here: Google vs. Facebook in the Battle of Affinity.