Test for Echo

Yes, it IS possible to live in an echo chamber when you depend on blogs for your information. Diversity of sources is key. Case in point, many of the conservative blogs are reporting that $150K of Oil For Food money has been found in George Galloway's wife's bank account. What do we find on liberal blogs? A refutation? A contrary opinion?

How about not a damned thing? That's right. Such a thing is completely absent from the liberal blogs I read. Which is why it's important to realize the bias inherent in one's sources and try to balance it out with some contrary opinions and biases. From the marketplace of ideas will rise the truth, but only if the marketplace is a true marketplace.

Miers Out

Yep. And if you thought this could happen any other way, you're kidding yourself. Bush would never have withdrawn her name, and it never would have come to a vote.

Speaking of Transparency...

You know, faking things always gets you in more trouble. It's rarely worth it. I've been a TotalFarker for quite a while. It's been tempting to use that for commercial gain, considering it's feasible I could bring a client's web server to its knees by posting a thread there and hyping it. But it's asinine to think you won't get caught. Farkers have very finely-tuned bullshit detectors.

And when the whole thing does come crashing down, what does that mean for a brand? (Please refrain from commenting if you're from the "any publicity is good publicity" school. I've heard it all before and I STILL think it's bullshit.)

A Little Frickin' Transparency, Please?

People get wiggy when they think they're being targeted with advertising. Even if they're not. This paranoia wouldn't be a factor if the companies doing the actual ad targeting would level with folks every once in a while. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Going out of your way to tell people how you're delivering messages that are more relevant to them is critical. Otherwise, people are going to assume the worst about you and think you're tracking their every movement across the Internet.

Yes, I know there are bigger problems here. But as long as companies insist on firing messages AT people instead of conversing WITH them, the least we can do is take steps to ensure people aren't freaked out by it.