I saw the New York Times article on last weekends Blogging Conflict with it's link to Federated Media but I noticed the it was Gawker's Nick Denton that sounded the alarm.

I never really grasped the whole story but did write about it last week in The weekend BlogStorm.

"…The site, People Ready (peoplereadybusiness.federatedmedia.net), had eight Federated writers answer the question, “When did you know your business was people ready?”

“People Ready” is a slogan of Microsoft, which advertises on Federated’s sites. The bloggers were not directly paid for taking part, but in return, Microsoft bought ads on their blogs.

Mr. Denton wrote that it was disappointing that reputable Federated writers had “signed on as spokespeople.” And he noted that “the stodgy old-media industry has a rule that newspaper reporters, and TV news hosts, shouldn’t trade on their public trust to endorse products.”

The lines are blurry between what bloggers should and should not say and get involved in.  I think, given what I quoted above, not that much of substance actually happened…but that's just me … I never figured out the whole story anyway - but if this article in the Times is an accurate description of what happened last week ..I've seen a lot worse, like the Vista Laptops that were being given to some A List tech bloggers via Microsoft PR agency - Edelman  or the Edelman's fake Walmart Blog.

Or how about the iPhone?  I don't know about you …. but a lot of prominent bloggers were given the iPhone in advance (so they could blog about it before anyone else).  Now, if you you look at the Blogosphere - guess what's the #1 topic?  AttentionMax's take was that bloggers did not need Apple to give them an iPhone … most knew that just writing about the iPhone (like I did, in fact with my iPhone Review) would drive more traffic.  But still…didnt some fairly well known bloggers manage to be given iPhones a bit earlier than everyone else..just so they could generate more Buzz about the iPhone, like David Pogue of the New York Times, who got his 2 weeks before it was released on June 29th.

How about the iPhone Stress Tests done by PC World?  Granted, the only difference I see with what Apple did is they did not tell anyone what to say about the iPhone, but they did ask people who got the phone early to sign a non disclosure form.

So the lines are really blurry on what a blogger can and can't say.

I read Gary Angel's takeaway from the Searchnomics conference in Santa Clara on Wednesday with great attention; I like Gary's approach to Search Marketing and SEO than most because it's grounded in Web Analytics (besides, he co-sponsored me for the Directorship of Social Media and Community seat at the Web Analytics Association).

Gary wrote about something about SEM/SEO traffic that I've been feeling for a while - but had not verbalized as well as he has:

"…Much of the current SEO practice is heavily focused on traffic. This is pernicious – and the more SEO matures, the worse the practice becomes. In helping company’s optimize PPC, I always explain one very simple concept – bad traffic is cheaper than good traffic. So if you let your buying agency optimize to traffic, you’ll be inundated in garbage. As SEO matures, the same basic principle applies. It will be easier to optimize for bad traffic than good. Similarly, it’s easier to optimize for the position of useless words than useful words. So two of the bellwether KPIs for SEO – traffic and # of terms with high position – are both very misleading. "

And with Paid Search - another insight:

"…Google is using their Content Match algorithms to evaluate Landing Pages. And based on our measurement of Content Match, I can only say "God Help Us." To me, this is an example of Google using a technology to "fix" a problem for which it is not well suited. The problem is the increasing presence of misleading or even fraudulent transitions between Ad Creative and Landing Pages. Unfortunately, I suspect these purveyors of fraud learned most of what they know by fooling Content Match to begin with – since the levels of fraud there vastly outpace what’s on Search. So the solution will simply end up penalizing the companies trying to build rich, marketing oriented landing pages.

My feeling, not being into PPC much, and often doubting it's effectiveness with out the right setup and methodology, is to advice on avoiding using PPC unless the right methodology is set up (A/B and MVT Testing, customized landing pages, great analytics tracking - same text in the ad and landing page - just to name a few things that should be set up before starting a Paid Campaign).

At the end of the day, Gary Angel sat down with Andres Mueller and talked shop, much like I did with Gary when we had dinner last Monday in NYC.  Interestingly, Gary Angel was on the same Search Panel with Bill Hunt, who I also know though IBM.  Small world.

"…I’m hoping that the small discussion group format of X Change will blend the best of both worlds. Allowing real interactivity but permitting the discussion to flow so that deeper themes and connections emerge. After the panel I sat down with Andreas Mueller and we talked about our respective businesses and learnings. I know I got more out of it than I did listening to myself talk (or even listening to Andreas answer a series of questions). It probably wouldn’t make a good movie (‘My Drinks with Andreas’) but I do think it will make for a great Conference experience!"

I'll be presenting my hands on experience with Social Media Metrics and Second Life (and other 3D Virtual Worlds) at the X Change Conference in September, in Napa Valley, btw.

And here's a video of my dinner with Gary Angel earlier this week:

Sicko, by Michael Moore is also premiering at the same time the iPhone is now available - I wonder if the two are linked, if nothing else, by timing.  I did my iPhone Review and have been getting close to a 100 visits an hour to my blog - being in position 5 for iPhone Review in Google today.

There is a slight uptick for Michael Moore's documentary today - nothing much compared to the iPhone - also on June 17th, a similar spike occurred.

But ….the Sicko documentary is another matter, I haven't written about it before but Eclectic Commons has with the post on Is There A Doctor In The House? On “Sicko” - A Second Look At Accessibility Of Health Care In The US where doc Jon Percepto points out that there's no perfect solution to the Healthcare Issue and it's not a simple as adopting a Health Care system similar to Canada's.

…The only two choices that have been presented to date are: government control of the medical care system (socialized medicine, as in Canada) which needs a lot of thought and consideration, or a private-sector Medical Care system whose accountability remains more involved with its investors. What we have now is a split between private sector control (accessible for those who can afford it) and a public medical care system for others who can’t (Medicaid). We also have non-profit medical providers which are supported partially by the government and private donations."

The problem, according to Percepto is there's only two choices an that's not enough - we need more options.

"…It is very frustrating that solutions to this problem remain bi-polar. No new creative ideas. I believe the United States can do better. The answer won’t come from politicians alone. They will have to come from all of us."