Was The Mark Jen Flap A Publicity Stunt?
Dirson has discovered that someone has bought ads on Google that direct readers to Mark Jen’s blog. Mark, you’ll remember, was involved in a very public blogging flap that got a lot of press this past week.
Considering that Mark has no reason to purchase ads for his own blog, and neither does anyone else, this lends some support behind the conspiracy theory that the whole situation this week was little more than a publicity stunt.
As Dirson has found out, searches on Google for either “life google” or “google blog” will sometimes show an ad, pictured above. The text of the ad features most of the blog’s title, “Life @ Google”, the text “personal blog of an ex-microsoft employee who now works at google”, and a link to his blog at 99zeros.blogspot.com/.
While I dismissed the idea of this being a stunt as pure hooey (is that how its spelled), I’m completely perplexed by this ad. Mark has no reason for it, so either Google is publicizing him, or someone is trying to make Google look bad by purchasing this ad. Of course, there is little chance of the second theory, since, as Dirson shows, the very text of the ad is rejected by AdWords, since you cannot use the word “Google” in an ad!
So, assuming this is Google’s work, we have two possibilities, both with the same reason. Google’s corporate culture has taken a beating lately, with its secretive nature getting it bad press. Guys like Russell Beattie are turning them down outright, other aren’t even trying, and none of this looks good for Google. Either Google has Jen blogging to make them look better, and the events this week were a way of publicizing the “little worker fighting the good fight and forcing Google to be nicer”, or, seeing the positive reaction to Mark’s blog, Google has decided to push him, because he makes them look good.
Basically, either the nuts are right, or they aren’t, and Google is taking advantage of Mark’s ability to make them look good. Google needs their Scoble, and maybe they figured that since so many people have noticed Mark, and many are willing to listen since he’s willing to diss his bosses, Mark is the perfect person to blog about Google. I’d like to hope that Google just saw a good thing and decided to publicize it, and isn’t trying to game the blogosphere, because that never works. If Google is giving free ads because they want people to see Mark as an example of Google not being so tight-lipped, then I have to applaud them. If.
Didn’t work for me. Is it off the site now?
Comment by Scott | January 29, 2005
Nate. please leave your agenda alone. It sucks when you push them in every post as if no one wants to work for google. It is just ONE guy who didn’t appear for interview. I am thinking you are simply jealous. And if you wondering why your reader count is dropping everyday, look no further.
Comment by z | January 29, 2005
Z, I don’t understand your continued hostility. I have an opinion, one many people agree with and everyone else is free to disagree with. If you’d like to show me a pattern of openness at Google, or a way in which Google’s tightlipped attitude is helping them, I’d love to debate it. Otherwise, don’t accuse me of having some sort of agenda or jealousy. Agenda implies I want something, and the only thing I want is for this monkey to be off of Google’s back. And I can’t be jealous. I like Google, I just don’t agree with every single thing they do. Anyone who likes every single thing about anything is a fool.
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And if you’d like, I can show you my traffic stats. I am more than pleased with them. Broke my old record last Monday, in fact…
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | January 30, 2005
As the admin of Nathan’s server, I can assure you his traffic count is only increasing.
Comment by Matt | January 30, 2005
I’m sure it ’s all less nefarious than you think. It could easily have been someone having a little fun who figured a way to buy a “google” AdWord (through the new API perhaps?).
Comment by pb | January 30, 2005
Google employees get a free, very limited delivery AdWords account. A single Ad is not shown anymore when the advertisers’ spending limit for clickthroughs has been reached - this being a very low limit indeed for the “free” accounts. They’re there so that the employees know what the company is offering, and how it works, no big deal.
Oh, and how being tight-lipped helps Google: if they don’t announce what they’re going to do, they can easily delay their release date until it’s actually done, without being accused of vapourware or whatever. It would happen, don’t kid yourself. If they don’t let out what they’re working on, they take everyone by surprise, including - get this - their competition. What a move, eh? Who’d have thought it? If they tell as little as possible about the internal goings-on, they maintain a competitive advantage - piecing tidbits together is easy, but if you have absolutely nothing, you really can’t build a picture.
And that’s all there is to it. I find it far cooler to announce, say, google video search by just going into public beta with it than to announce it three months out and then maybe realise that not only will implementation take longer than planned but also that some copyright owners prefer talking to the suddenly-interested msn or whatever.
It’s not *bad*. It’s just unusual, and you’re free to dislike it.
Comment by G | January 31, 2005
There’s nothing strange about a blogger buying adwords toward his own blog. Just a month ago, Blogger tried to encourage bloggers to do just that with this article on Blogger Knowledge.
Comment by Tim Yang | February 2, 2005