Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Blog Are Famous Now



You know that already, of course, being one of the movers-and-shakers of this world yourself. Blogs are maligned and ridiculed in the establishment media (new framing, heh). But that's not the end of the attention we are getting. We are also judged to be most unreliable and ethically corrupt:

Murphy is launching PayPerPost.com, which will automate such hookups between advertisers and bloggers and thus codify a new frontier of product placement. Advertisers pay to post details about their "opportunity," specifying, among other things, how they want bloggers to write about, say, a new shoe, if they want photos to be included, and whether they'll pay only for positive mentions. Bloggers who abide by the rules get paid; heavily trafficked blogs may command premium rates. Those seeking to subvert PayPerPost from within can't: No pornographic or "illicit" content is accepted.

...

IT'S BETTER FOR A BRAND to get into a blog than to surround it as a banner or text ad, says Murphy. Unlike ads, blog posts live on in search engines and through links from other sites. "A couple thousand" bloggers have participated in Blogstar Network, he says. As for disclosure, "it's up to [bloggers] to be their own morality police," he says.

So don't believe anything I say. I'm probably getting paid by the chocolate manufacturers for declaring my love of that substance all the time. (Now that's an idea!) But more seriously, forget about trying to corrupt me with money. Now, if you were willing to come over and wash my windows, you dear little corpocrat, then we might be speaking. Even in that case I'd footnote the rave I'd post and the footnote would clearly say "thanks for the windows, smooch".

Not that I mind taking ads as you may have noticed. I pre-screen even them and I only post ads which I believe advertize a product someone reading me might be interested in. Some of the advertized products I've bought myself. But the ads are ads and the blog posts are posts and never the twain shall meet. Or that's the idea.

What else is drawing attention to blogs? The information warfare! There's even a government grant to study blogs:

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research recently began funding a new research area that includes a study of blogs. Blog research may provide information analysts and warfighters with invaluable help in fighting the war on terrorism.

Dr. Brian E. Ulicny, senior scientist, and Dr. Mieczyslaw M. Kokar, president, Versatile Information Systems Inc., Framingham, Mass., will receive approximately $450,000 in funding for the 3-year project entitled "Automated Ontologically-Based Link Analysis of International Web Logs for the Timely Discovery of Relevant and Credible Information."

"It can be challenging for information analysts to tell what's important in blogs unless you analyze patterns," Ulicny said.

"Automated Ontologically-Based Link Analysis of International Web Logs for the Timely Discovery of Relevant and Credible Information." Reminds me of the good ole times of academic writing.

Linking to that article was probably a mistake. I might have to answer questions now about "Automated Ontologically-Based Link Analysis of International Web Logs for the Timely Discovery of Relevant and Credible Information". Life is too short for such long words.