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.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
