Media: All about ... Facebook.

Its 'interactive' advertising idea heralds a new era.

Changes are afoot at Facebook. A new version of the website has been unveiled, with users gradually being migrated over to the site in the coming weeks. At the same time, the company is trialling new advertising formats that are designed to encourage its legion of users to engage more. Oh, and Facebook has just crossed the 100 million active-user mark within the past fortnight.

In case you need reminding, all of this springs from the mind of a 24-year-old - Mark Zuckerberg, whose vision continues to drive the company.

While it has been an all-round success story in terms of winning publicity and users, Facebook has yet to transform this into massive ad revenue - the company is privately owned and doesn't discuss ad revenue figures, but its approach has avoided large volumes of banner ads.

Understandably, media buyers have been eagerly awaiting news of what Facebook planned to do with its advertising set-up. And the details of a four-week trial of new ad formats have just been revealed. They fit in with the new version of Facebook, and will feature comment boxes, where users can make remarks on the ads, be they video or static.

Blake Chandlee, who joined Facebook as its commercial director for the European Union region from Yahoo! last year, explains that the company quickly recognised that the banner format did not work on the site. 'When you're on Facebook, you're interacting with your friends. Traditional 'shouty' banner ads are not effective,' he says.

The idea is to fill the site with advertising that is relevant to users, and for advertisers to create ads for the site that will improve the experience rather than disrupt it.