Let's face it. Weather apps are important. Knowing when it is going to rain and how hot or cold it is outside is essential to...life.

So when we run across an awesome weather app we always get excited.

That's what happened today when we ran across Check The Weather. The minimal app is so easy to use and it looks great. We can definitely see this app gaining a coveted position on our home screen.

One of the apps best features is that it integrates one of our other favorite weather apps, Dark Sky. This means that Check the weather can tell you down to the minute when it will rain.

Check The Weather is available for iPhone and costs $1.99.

Tap to open. Check the weather has a pretty icon.

Of course the app needs your location, tap OK to allow it.

Check the weather is all about gestures. Swiping up, down, left, and right all reveal different aspects of the weather.

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Stella McCartney has made a name for herself outside of her famous dad. 

And the 41-year-old designing superstar has a pretty fantastic life. 

McCartney has a London townhouse and a gorgeous country home. She counts celebrities like Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow among her best friends. 

She also dresses some of the most famous women in the world. 

While her big name put her at an advantage, there's no doubt McCartney is very artistic and talented. You won't believe how much money she's made on her own. 

She replaced Karl Lagerfeld at Chloe when she was only 25.

The claws came out.

"I think they should have taken a big name,” Lagerfeld snipped at the time. “They did, but in music, not fashion.”

While McCartney's designs were criticized at first, she's come around. 

Her best friend is Gwyneth Paltrow.

Paltrow said she appreciates Stella's tough, "ghetto" side. The two have been friends for decades, but have bonded even more closely since their children are the same age.

Paltrow is also married to a Brit–Coldplay singer Chris Martin–and lives close to McCartney.

She's also good friends with Madonna.

The two are often photographed around London together. McCartney also designed Madonna's wedding gown when she married Guy Ritchie in Scotland. 

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A home that looks as if it is hidden and stowed away in a forest on Kiawah Island, S.C. is on sale for $10.85 million. 

The house is LEED Certified, and the first on Kiawah Island to earn that honor.

It has eight bedrooms and 9.5 bathrooms, and sits on two acres with views of the Atlantic Ocean.

Welcome to Flyway Drive.

The home spans 7,363 square feet.

The listings touts the home's top-of-the-line Energy Star appliances.

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Hillary Clinton took the fall for the deadly Embassy attacks in Benghazi that left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead.

Twitter is abuzz with other suggestions of what Clinton should take responsibility for, but we thought it was only fair to remind the world (AKA the Internet) of some of Clinton's better, or at least funnier, moments.

Here, our top 11 Hillary memes and moments — these dark days will pass, Hil.

1. Texts From Hillary

Who could forget the insta-sensation "Texts from Hillary" memes? Here, one of our favorites, featuring none other than Vice Prez and resident grinner, Joe Biden.

2. Hillary meets TFH creators Stacy Lambe and Adam Smith

Ever the jokester, Hillary went that extra mile to invite the men behind Texts from Hillary to the State Department. She looks like she's having way more fun than they are.

3. Watch Out

Hillary, did you make this face KNOWING it was going to become a meme? Really.

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This past Friday, Starwood invited us to the opening of its newest hotel, the Westin at Grand Central in New York City.

Coupled with the opening of this brand new Westin, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) — the hotel chain's guest rewards program — hosted an event as part of it's "Hear the Music, See the World" series of exclusive concerts around the world.

Click here to see pictures of the event >

Friday's artist was Ben Folds Five. The performance was the sixth out of nine that Starwood is hosting in the series, which also includes shows by Natasha Beddingfield in Dubai and Thievery Corporation at the W Santiago.

Friday's event was particularly special for Starwood because this was one of the first performances Ben Folds had put on from their newest studio album, the band's first in 13 years.

Before the show on Friday, we got a chance to speak with Starwood's Senior Vice President of SPG Chris Holdren about some of the hotel company's perks, like the "Hear the Music, See the World" series, which is part of its partnership with Live Nation. 

"Events like these are part of Starwood's SPG moments effort. SPG moments is a way for our members who spend a lot of their life on the road to be able to redeem the points they earn on sort of 'money can't buy' experiences to share with their loved ones," Holdren said.

SPG's Moments campaign revolves around three key passion points for members: music, sports, and the arts.

"Hear the Music is our signature series, but we also offer different VIP experiences such as exclusive access at big concerts, where people can go backstage, and meet the artist," Holdren explained.

In the past, Starwood has offered members singing lessons with Natasha Beddingfield in exchange for points. And during the recent U.S. open, members could redeem points for a tennis lesson with Andre Agassi.

This event was to celebrate the Grand Opening of The Westin. Located just blocks away from the bustling Grand Central Terminal, the hotel is certainly convenient. A Westin spokesperson told us that $75 million was placed into renovations for the building.

Before the party started we got to view one of the guest rooms. Most guest rooms start at 300 square feet. Here is the Corner King Room.

Each room also includes a new Starbucks Verismo machine.

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Glenn Starkman has traded his comfortable life in unexpectedly wonderful Cleveland (Heights), Ohio for the excitement and alpine scenery of global diplomatic and particle physics capital Geneva, Switzerland. 

While every scientist he meets tells him this will be "an exciting time to be at CERN" he will set aside a few moments each month or so to share his observations of life in the fast lane with his fellow Scientific American readers.

The surroundings

Nestled among the vineyards outside Geneva, surrounded by the lush slopes of the Jura mountains on one side and the rugged snow-capped Alps on the other sits CERN, the premiere laboratory for particle physics in the world.

Here is the home of the Higgs, or at least of the Large Hadron Collider and the ATLAS and CMS detectors that appear to have finally discovered this important piece of the Standard Model.

All roads lead to CERN

More than that, with the US having abruptly cancelled the post-war pre-eminence in accelerator physics that brought it discovery after discovery, and their attendant technological spinoffs, CERN is not just the Rome to which all European (and many non-European) roads in particle physics lead, but the gathering place of the exiles awaiting the return to Zion (or Batavia, IL or Menlo Park, CA), if only the U.S. Congress would foot the bill.

Functionality at its best

Straddling as it does the Swiss and French borders, you would imagine this contemporary Tower of Babel to be a place where fine Gallic taste and precision Helvetic expertise combine to create a cosmopolitan scientific paradise – a workplace that is both beautiful and functional.

Nahh. If only the fictional accounts of luxury and high design held the least grain of truth. Dan Brown: dream on.

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While the national races dominate media attention, this year is also a fundamental turning point for marijuana legality in the United States.

This year, six different states and four cities will vote on initiatives that have to do with marijuana.

These are three types of laws on the ballots: 

• Medical marijuana laws
• Decriminalization, which makes marijuana possession or sale an infraction punished by fine rather than a misdemeanor warranting possible jail time
• Legalization, which would make marijuana legal to buy, sell, and use like any other commodity

No state has successfully made marijuana wholly legal, but many have come close — and several may succeed in doing so this November.

The end result could be a radically different landscape for marijuana availability in the United States. Here's a rundown of all of the places that are putting pot to a vote. 

Washington votes on Initiative 502 to legalize marijuana statewide

Washington has one of the boldest ballot initiatives on the table. 

Initiative 502 would legalize the taxation, sale, and consumption of marijuana in the state of Washington. 

It would allow anyone over the age of 21 to purchase up to an ounce of marijuana, sixteen ounces of marijuana-infused products, or 72 ounces of liquid marijuana-infused products.

It would also allow producers to grow marijuana, the liquor board to regulate the sales, and the state to tax the sales (initially an excise tax of 25% wholesale price).

The initiative bans the public use of marijuana and the act of driving under the influence of marijuana. It allocates all of the money collected from the cannabis taxes toward state health and education services. 

Source: Washington Secretary of State

Polling on Initiative 502 is very positive and it will probably pass

Survey USA has been conducting repeated polls in Washington, and it seems that support is consolidating around Initiative 502. 

A poll published on July 18 indicated that 55% of respondents would vote yes on the initiative with 32% voting no. 13% were undecided, with men supporting the measure more than women by a somewhat significant margin. 

Another poll carried out September 7-9 showed 57% of respondents supporting the initiative, 34% voting no, and only 9% undecided. 

Colorado, already a cannabis oasis, votes on Amendment 64 to legalize marijuana statewide

The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act — Amendment 64 — if approved by voters would immediately allow for the legal possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for anyone over the age of 21. 

The amendment would also allow for the cultivation of marijuana plants, the manufacture of marijuana products and the retail sale of cannabis at approved and regulated locations.

It allows municipal governments to prohibit these locations if they so choose. 

The act also requires the Colorado Assembly to enact excise taxes on marijuana and to annually use the first $40 million collected from these taxes towards state public schools. 

Source: Regulate Marijuana

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American diplomacy is as old as the country itself. In 1776, Benjamin Franklin traveled to Paris to serve as a commissioner on behalf of his newly declared country and solicit the support of the French for the American Revolution.

Find out more about U.S. Ambassadors >

Today, a primary function of a United States Ambassador is to act as a representative for the President of the United States and maintain good relations with the country in which they are posted.

Typically ambassadors are either appointed as political favors or they are career diplomats from the Foreign Service.

Here are 25 facts about the ambassadorial world, broken down by numbers.

Foreign Relations

1. The rank of “Ambassador” was first awarded by the United States in 1893. Before this, the highest title was “Minister.”

2. About 7 million visas are granted by U.S. embassies around the world each year.

3. The United States has diplomatic relations with 180 countries.

4. Current United States diplomatic missions: 265.

Presidents As Foreign Ministers

5. The State Department created the Foreign Service in 1924.

6. Six U.S. Presidents have served as Foreign Minister: John Adams (UK, Netherlands), William Henry Harrison (Colombia), James Monroe (France, UK), John Quincy Adams (UK, Netherlands, Russia, Germany), Thomas Jefferson (France), and Martin van Buren (United Kingdom). 

7. U.S. Presidents who served as Ambassador to another country: 0

8. Five nations don’t have U.S. ambassadorial exchanges: Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Embassies And Rankings

9. In 1966, Hungary and Bulgaria became the two most recent nations to get full-fledged American embassies.

10. There are currently 27 vacant ambassador posts.

11. There are 10 possible diplomatic ranks at each post as dictated by bilateral diplomacy: Ambassador, Chargé d’affaires, Minister, Minister-Counselor, Counselor, First Secretary, Second Secretary, Third Secretary, Attaché, Assistant Attaché

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You know what visions I get in my dreams?

Visions of falling off of buildings (and doing the full body spasm thing when I hit the ground). These 11 people, on the other hand, had dreams that changed the world.

Let’s hope that my visions take a turn toward genius sometime soon. Until then, I’ll just take inspiration from these guys.

The Periodic Table

It’s said that Dmitry Mendeleyev was on a three-day work bender when he finally gave in for a few minutes of shut eye.

Instead of falling asleep for 17 hours like most sleep deprived people, Mendeleyev dreamt of an arrangement of elements that would change modern chemistry forever, then popped up about 20 minutes later to record it.

“I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper … Only in one place did a correction later seem necessary.”

"Yesterday"

Paul McCartney was just 22 when he “woke up with a lovely tune in my head” and thought, “That’s great, I wonder what that is?’”

He got up and easily picked the tune out on the piano, but was convinced that it must have been something he heard years ago and subconsciously remembered. After further investigation revealed that it was a McCartney original, he jotted down some lyrics: “Scrambled eggs, oh, my baby, how I love your legs.”

The real words came later, obviously.

Frankenstein's Monster

Mary Shelley was hanging out with her husband (Percy Bysshe, of course), Lord Byron and some other literary notables when they decided to have a writing contest.

Mary was stuck—until she went to bed for the night, and had what she called a “waking dream” of a “hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion.”

Thrilled that her writer’s block was gone, Shelley decided that “What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.”

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We scoured the SEC filings of 15 biggest media companies, like News Corp. and Disney, to see which CEOs get the best perks in the form of private jets and other trinkets.

One of them gets more than $1 million per year in company jet time.

We've ranked our list according to the highest private jet packages per company.

Where available, we've also provided their car fees, club membership costs, and security budgets.

Left off the list is Sony's CEO Kazuo Hirai, since his sole company perk includes the company paying approximately $114,634 of his income taxes.

15. Charles Dolan (Cablevision): $24,531

The $24,531 is split between use of the company's air craft, free cable television, high-speed data, and voice services, home security, and use of the travel department. 

The Cablevision CEO's aircraft expense doesn't exceed $25,000 or 10% of his total perks.

Car service: $132,781

(Source: SEC)

14. Jeffrey Bewkes (Time Warner): $37,700

Car service: $7,576

Financial services: $26,325

(Source: SEC)

13. Jon Feltheimer (Lionsgate Films): $60,476

It's noted Feltheimer reimbursed the company approximately $60,000.

(Source: SEC)

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Marketers take notice. Even if your brand is not an active Instagram user people are still posting about you, and tagging your brand name with a hashtag.

Take McDonald's as an example, while the company's official Instagram account only has 38,000 followers, there are more than 700,000 images on Instagram running with the hashtag #McDonald's. That's a lot of people McDonald's could be reaching daily if they could get all of them to follow the brand Instagram account.

Despite the fact that Instagram has more than quadrupled its user base in less than a year, for some reason brands still tend to undervalue its marketing power.

In a recent report, SimplyMeasured found that only 40 brands that made Interbrand's Top 100 have Instagram accounts, and of that portion, only 38 have active accounts with photos posted.

But, the question facing marketers now is, how does just posting pictures get more customers? To answer this question, we have compiled a slideshow of the Top 10 brands on Instagram, based on the SimplyMeasured analysis, with a few thoughts on why these Instagram strategies are so effective.

10. McDonalds — 38,141 Followers: McDonald's has no idea of the possibility that Instagram holds for them! They have 717,026 photos posted using #McDonalds. If they just spent a few minutes a day posting a couple of the images they run on their Facebook page to Instagram, this account could be amazing.

Title: "#mcdonalds #chickenmcbites"

Number of Photos: 7

9. General Electric (GE) — 138,329 Followers GE dropped from #5 to #9 on this list in just two months. While the picture is very nice and sort of interesting, the description is just a line of hashtags that don't say anything about the company. Instagram users need to feel like they are stepping into the world of the brand/photos.

Title: "generalelectric #GE #Aviation’s CF34 #engine on a #Bombardier Challenger 604. #technology #avgeek"

Number of Photos: 162 Photos

8. Hermes — 142,722 Followers: Though they don't say much, unlike GE, Hermes is much more active. By posting at least once a day they keep followers up to date on all the latest styles and fashion events.

Title: "hermes_paris #hermes 1mon"

Number of Photos: 575

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Canada's economic boom depends on tearing up 54,000 square-mile of pristine Alberta wilderness.

Development of the world's third largest oil supply is proceeding rapidly. It already represents a $3.5 billion annual paycheck to the Canadian government and 75,000 immediate jobs.

But many are aghast at the project, which is also the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas in Canada.

When you see the pictures, you may feel the same. We're not saying the project is good or bad. We're just saying the scale and severity of what's happening in Alberta will make your spine tingle.

Business Insider sent me to Alberta in early May, when there was still ice on the ground and a bite in the air. I took these shots, trying to stay warm, from about 1,000 feet out the window of a small plane.

The following pictures show oil mining, where the sand is dug from the ground and the oil's separated through a lengthy and messy process. There are drilling sites in the oil sands, and those are highlighted in the photo essay at the end of this one.

To get a look at the oil sand mines we rented this Cessna 172 which the pilot was allowed to bring down to 1,000 feet — from there, through the open window and with a long lens we were able to see what really goes on in one of the most controversial places on the planet

The Alberta oil sands are spread across more than 54,000 square miles but we're taking a look at just a small part of that — the red line is an approximate outline of the entire deposit — the green is where we'll be flying

But thousands flock here to make real money in the oil sands — where creating synthetic crude begins in the strip mine

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The Paris Motor Show just wrapped up, and now automakers have moved south to Sydney, where the Australian International Motor Show starts tomorrow.

For the occasion, Lexus is continuing its tour of the LF-CC, its high-end hybrid concept. First revealed in Detroit in January, the LF-CC made an encore appearance in Paris, last month.

The latest take on the concept is the LF-CC Blue, a sports version with a new color and a more powerful battery pack and engine to pump out 500 bhp.

Other than that, it's the same car, but it's still worth a closer look.

Here's the LF-CC in red at its Detroit debut.

Not much has changed since then, but it's still a good looking car.

For Australia, Lexus went with 'Opal Blue.'

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U2 bassist Adam Clayton has listed his Upper West Side apartment for $8.965 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The three-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment is in the El Dorado Building at 300 Central Park West.

Clayton's bandmate Bono also used to live inside the El Dorado towers, but he sold his condo in 2008 for a pad down the street. Now it's Clayton's time to go.

Clayton bought two apartments in the building and renovated and combined them into one large unit.

The apartment is on the fourth floor with a 38-foot-long gallery.

He originally bought the first apartment in 1993 for $620,000 and the other for $430,000 in 1994.

Alec Baldwin and Moby all used to live in the building but have also recently sold, according to Curbed.

Source: Curbed

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Some very powerful women sit behind many of today's most promising new companies.

They've worked their way up the corporate ladder and are running companies that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, from Eventbrite to SpaceX.

Meet the inspiring women leading today's biggest startups to success.

Sophia Amoruso and Deborah Benton

Company: Nasty Gal

Titles: Founder and CEO, COO

Sophia Amoruso bootstrapped her clothing company to more than $30 million in annual revenue. Since raising outside capital, her company now generates more than $120 million annually.

This past summer, Benton joined Nasty Gal as COO from ShoeDazzle. She's been called the Sheryl Sandberg of LA, and she was a director of dotcom bubble darling, eToys, in the early 2000's.

Jessica Herrin

Company: Stella & Dot

Titles: Founder and CEO

Herrin began her startup career straight out of college and, by age 24, she founded her own successful venture, Weddingchannel.com.

Now she runs Stella & Dot, a jewelry selling startup that's worth about $400 million.

Pamela Springer

Company: Manta

Title: President and CEO

Springer has a strong sales background and she began her career at Ziff Davis. Now she's heading up Manta, a private tech company that's created an online community for millions of small businesses.

It was founded in 2005, so it's a stretch to call it a startup, but either way Springer has done wonders for the company, which is now valued at about $375 million.

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The documentary Armadillo follows a platoon of Danish soldiers as they endure a six-month deployment to Afghanistan in what ends up being the bloodiest two years of the war, fought in Helmand, the most dangerous province of the country.

The grunts start off green, inexperienced, unseasoned, even innocent. But as they explore the depths, the frustrations, and the subtle horrors of the cold moral abyss that is the face of combat, they discover things about themselves they never knew, until Afghanistan demanded an answer.

Scars, seen and unseen, take shape throughout the course of their deployment.

[Warning Graphic]

Clean shaven and eager to fight — the troops line up to for the obligatory speech about duty, honor, etc

But the real camaraderie is displayed outside of formation — wresting and rough-housing brings the young troops closer — like brothers

The guys bond over other activities as well before they deploy — like hiring exotic dancers

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The Ciragan Palace, on the Bosphorus in Istanbul, has undergone many transformations. It was first built as a waterfront villa by Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha in 1719 as a way to escape the stifling summer heat of the city. Throughout the 1800s, several sultans built and rebuilt the palace to their own tastes. In 1909, the palace became the Turkish parliament building, but just one year later it was destroyed by fire.

After that point, the Ciragan Palace sat neglected for years, mis-used as military barracks by the French and as a soccer field by the Besiktas Football team.

Click here to go straight to the meal >>

But some time in the mid-1900s, the Turkish government began to take back and restore its historic sites, including the Ciragan Palace. Restoration work on the once-glorious palace began in the 1980s, and in 1991, the palace re-opened its doors as a luxurious hotel, the Ciragan Palace Kempinski, managed by the high-end Kempinski hotel brand.

Today, the hotel consists of the historic palace (home to 11 opulent suites and a fine-dining restaurant, Tugra) and an adjoining modern hotel. You can actually sleep in the old palace—if you can afford the price tag of several thousand euros per night. If not, though, you can still enjoy the palace by visiting for a meal in the award-winning Tugra restaurant.

I recently visited Istanbul and dined in the Tugra restaurant, and it proved to be one of the most memorable meals of my life. Tugra, which is the name of the calligraphic seal of the Ottoman sultans, is an homage to the Ottoman era. Here the chefs dig up recipes and dishes that the sultans once enjoyed, and serve them to modern diners in a historic palace setting.

The restaurant takes advantage of fresh, local, seasonal ingredients, such as wild herbs from the Aegean mountains; black cabbage and corn flour from the Black Sea; lamb and dried beans from Middle Anatolia; free range cattle from East Anatolia; and fresh fish from the Bosphorus to recreate the delicious Ottoman-era dishes.

Who knew 600-year-old recipes could taste so good?

The Ciragan Palace dates back to the 18th century. After years of neglect and decay, the palace was restored in 1991 and re-opened as a hotel. Today the restaurant Tugra occupies the first floor of the palace.

At Tugra, you can eat on the grand outdoor terrace, which has glorious views of the Bosphorus and the Asian side of the city beyond.

Or you can dine in the elegant and romantic dining room. There are nice touches here like the floor-to-ceiling windows, large-scale historic paintings and tiny stools for women to place their purses.

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China is believed to execute about 4,000 people a year, according to human rights organization Dui Hua. And a number of those executed are white collar criminals.

Everyone from CEO's of mining companies, small business owners, and political figures have been given a death sentence after being found guilty of fraud, corruption, or illegal fund raising.

Recently netizens have protested the death sentence and got a few overturned. China's legal system is widely criticized because those with political clout are said to get off with lighter sentences.

What follows are some of the most notorious cases in which white collar criminals were given a death sentence or were executed. In some cases, the guilty were given a two-year reprieve i.e. if they committed no more crimes for two years and were on their best behavior their sentence would be amended to life in prison.

Note: Figures on the death penalty are a state secret. The number of executions have declined since 2007 because of a reform that required death penalties to be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court (SPC).

Song Wendai, death sentence

Crime: Grafting and embezzling public properties and funds

Job title: Former CEO of Qiankun Gold and Silver Refinery Co Ltd

Song Wendai was sentenced to death for illegally obtaining shares of the company and embezzling 87 million yuan ($13.87 million) in public funds and assets including gold and silver.

Source: Shanghai Daily / Shenzhen Daily

Wu Ying, death with a two-year reprieve

Crime: Fraud and raising money outside the banking system

Job title: N/A

Wu Ying aka 'Rich Sister' was sentenced to death in December 2009 by the the Jinhua Intermediate People’s Court in Zhejiang for defrauding investors of about $60.2 million.

But netizens rallied in support for Wu saying her punishment was too harsh and that defendants with political connections got away with lenient sentence. The Supreme People's Court (SPC) overturned the death sentence in April this year giving her a two-year reprieve.

Source: The New York Times

Du Yimin, executed

Crime: Fraud and illegal fund raising

Job title: Beauty parlor owner

Du Yimin was convicted of illegally raising 700 million yuan ($103 million). She is said to have promised investors high returns but instead used them to buy apartments, cars and other luxury goods for herself.

She was sentenced to death by an intermediate court in March 2008, and was executed in August 2009.

Source: Xinhua

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The Nets were accused of being a team with zero chemistry and personality last year.

And it looks like Deron Williams is trying to change that.

The past couple of days, Williams has been tweeting out photos of his fellow teammates next to their celebrity doppelgangers. Other teammates, like Kris Humphries, are joining in on the fun too.

Just another reason to be excited for basketball in Brooklyn.

"We have to be team Jacob by default @krishumphries" (Kris Humphries vs. Taylor Lautner)

"Y'all didn't know @quietstorm_32 was a movie star" (CJ Watson vs Golum)

Teammate Toko Shengelia got in on it, comparing Reggie Evans to actor Djimon Gaston Hounsou

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Facebook's new Custom Audiences ad product allows advertisers to use your email address and phone numbers to target you with ads.

Basically, any company that already has an email list of its own customers can now take that list to Facebook, which will match it against a list of users who have those addresses. Those users then become ripe for targeting.

In a press release, AdParlor, a strategic preferred marketing partner (sPMP) for Facebook, announced that one of its large travel clients had successfully launched an email targeting campaign on Facebook that got a 25X return on investment from increased bookings, using the Custom Audiences tool to target their ads.

The tool was officially released to the public in September, and allows advertisers to use their CRM or non-Facebook contacts to target ads to Facebook users. The tool uses email addresses, phone numbers, and Facebook user IDs to match ads so advertisers can find the exact people they want to target.

This is how it works.

First, companies identify the groups of people they want to target through whatever type of CRM you use (Outlook, Salesforce, Gmail, an excel spreadsheet). Then, using Facebook's Power Editor (a Facebook tool for advertisers), advertisers input the contact information to find the individuals within the Facebook network.

Facebook "hashes" the data (a process that ensures personal contact information is kept anonymous) and matches the data to create a custom Facebook audience for your ads. These people do NOT have to be fans of your brand page.

To flesh out the list, you can also overlay it with Facebook location and demographic targeting. For now, the service is free for Facebook brands.

According to AdParlor, their first campaign using the Custom Audience product seems to have worked. For every $1 the AdParlor's travel client spent on Facebook Advertising, the Custom Audience campaign generated $25 in room booking revenue. “We are thrilled to see these results,” said Hussein Fazal, CEO of AdParlor. “This is further proof that Facebook can innovate with their advertising products to drive ROI positive ad spend and we expect more companies to begin leveraging this new targeting feature.”

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