astroturf

A one-shot blog was linked to on digg today that expressed puzzlement and outrage over the presence of Microsoft's Get the FUD (here's the 'actual' page for those of you that will ask: Microsoft: Get the Facts).

Businessweek has a story about an astroturfing debacle where Wal-Mart was (indirectly) paying bloggers/journalists to say good things about them. This seems to be happening more and more. And it will, too.

I think the reason for this is a simplistic mind-set:

1) Big company finds bloggers saying bad things about said company
2) Big company pays money to other bloggers to say good things about the company