Culture

Culture

by Mike Masnick




Taking Your Case To The Court Of Paid Search

from the forcing-the-court-of-public-opinion dept

It was just a year ago that we were talking about famous people accused of various crimes who decided to take their cases to the web-based court of public opinion, by creating websites that told "their side of the story." Now, it appears these sites have reached their next logical stage: the court of paid search. Sure, you may have a website telling your side of some scandalous behavior, but how is anyone going to find you? Well, when it comes to ex-Enron chief Ken Lay, it involves buying up various keywords on Google, including the name of the Houston Chronicle reporter who usually covers Ken Lay and Enron stories. I guess, for those who feel Ken Lay is getting off too easy, you can go click on his links a few times -- knowing, in all likelihood, that the law firm that set this up for him is charging slightly more than the per-click fee Google is charging. Of course, it's only a matter of time until you get a situation where two sides of a story will both be bidding to make sure that their side is the top result, and then you could have some really interesting fees per click.

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