InsideGoogle - Was The Mark Jen Flap A Publicity Stunt? (from: PubSub: Scoble)
Source: Was The Mark Jen Flap A Publicity Stunt?
Link: http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2005/01/29/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.