LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Facebook has grown its revenues to $1.18 billion, but it has spent far more than that on operations and attempts to expand. Meanwhile, the increasing trend towards mobile has Facebook executives looking for a way to cash in on a market that is less friendly to ad-supported revenues. 

Facebook makes most of its money selling you (the user, a.k.a product) to advertisers (a.k.a. clients) via targeted ads. Facebook scans your posts including your "likes" and interests and serves you ads that are connected with your current status and preferences. 

Are you single? Facebook will promote dating sites to you. Do you like dogs? Prepare to see ads supporting shelters for dogs and animal adoption. 

Advertisers pay Facebook each time you click on an ad. 

However, an increasing number of people are using facebook on their mobile devices, and mobile real estate, which is small compared to today's widescreen computer monitors, can't support as many ads. That means less revenue for Facebook. 

To combat this, the company plans to slowly ratchet up the number of ads served to mobile viewers. It is hoped the increase in ads will bring more revenues to Facebook as the company continues working on its very ambitious plans to grow and expand. 

Already, Facebook has a poor reputation among users. Donna Hoffman, a marketing professor from the University of California at Riverside, told the Washington Post, "I don't think Facebook gets it. They are one of the most reactionary tech companies I have ever seen. They're not proactive, barely responsive and not in tune with the zeitgeist or needs of their own consumers."

Meanwhile, customers are periodically outraged over changes made to privacy policies, interfaces, layout design, and more. 

Facebook isn't the only option for social networking and it is fast becoming the tech company that users love to hate. People stick around only because that's where everybody else seems to be. But that may soon change. 

Facebook rival, Google+ recently celebrated its first year in public use and with a few notable exceptions, doesn't feature advertising at all. And it's numbers are growing. Google+ also features a cleaner, more elegant interface and is much more visual than Facebook. Still, Google+ lacks the userbase that Facebook has, which tops out close to one billion users. 

So far, Facebook has failed to impress investors and it is unlikely to impress its product (read: users). While the company has done remarkably well since starting up in a Harvard dorm, its future seems to grow dimmer, not brighter, as the months progress. 

© 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.