A small blow for PPC

recent warning from US federal regulators over inadequate disclosure

[Receptional]

Thought some of you over the pond would be interested in this article

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2121009,00.html

Dixon.

[jeremy goodrich]

Actually, that's pretty old news :) Hardly breaking -

check out this last post from July 23rd- [webmasterworld.com...]

with links to these gems: FTC seeks information on search engines [webmasterworld.com] posted on August 15th, and then when Fast responded, including a link to information about their search results on Alltheweb.com [webmasterworld.com]

I guess 'across the pond' does news run a month behind? lol.

The only thing that article had, which was news, was comments about the stuff with people well known in the search engine industry - did you know we're all famous here?

We've got GoogleGuy, Inktomi posting, Stephen Baker from FAST, and lurkers from every other major SE that hasn't decided when or if to post, a guy from SearchHippo that posts here too, Gigablast, and lots of other stuff.

(ZDNet needs to start putting those articles out there a little earlier to qualify as 'breaking news').

[hurlimann]

Espotting also lurk here.

[jeremy goodrich]

lurkers from every other major SE that hasn't decided when or if to post

That's what I meant when I said 'lurkers from every other major search engine' he he.

[webdiversity]

I often get e-mails from search engine and PPC people quoting things I've said and "correcting" me. By that it's usually that what is said is correct but that they might prefer it said in a different way. I'm sure a lot of them would just love to dive in and defend (or attack), but I can understand why they keep out of it.

In the UK it's why the Royal Family stay out of having political opinions, they just get their spin doctors to have a quiet word in people's ears to correct the stuff that is said.

I guess it's testimony to the fact that there are so many non-lurkers here and long may it continue. I'd have thought that forums like this can be a fantastic or a harmful source of infomation.

[skibum]

People don't post because they have to tow the corporate line and let the spin doctors and corporate communications "specialists" do their thing.

It's seems pretty rare to find a GoogleGuy most anywhere in business who at least presents an online persona of a company and engages in real dialog with real people. It also seems like the more honest, ethical, companies out there (Google being the prime example) will actually talk. Advertising and press releases can't buy that kind of promotion.

The forums here are a real source of information of what's really going on. Spin is quickly unwrapped and debunked and maybe that's what keeps SE's lurking instead of posting.

[jeremy goodrich]

Actually, if the guy from FAST chose a different nick - instead of his name / like FAST_GUY, people might notice him better - though that's off topic, but INK did the same thing. They had their rep posting with his name, and not INK_GUY, perhaps they chose the new person with the nick INKTOMI because the guy who was posting now works at FAST.

AV tried it, but they never confirmed or denied publically the person that posted here was with them or not - probably cause it didn't work out so well.

Anyway, this is way off topic -

just wanted to point out that GoogleGuy isn't really the prime example of it - he just figured out it gave the company more branding than signing up with a name, but a nick related to his url.

The other guys are probably doing it for 1) company exposure and 2) personal branding.

Anyway, this thread has gone way off topic.

[Mike_Mackin]

>Anyway, this is way off topic -

so I'll add that FAST doesn't make you guess.
Stephen always starts his post with something like "Hi this is Stephen Baker from FAST"

[Brett_Tabke]

I think zdnet must have posted the wrong story. There was one released on it's mirror site (cnet) on monday. I went looking for the story, but couldn't find it.

[Brett_Tabke]

Here is that other article:

http://rss.com.com/2100-1023-954171.html