[WikiEN-l] Viral marketing?

[Dan Grey]

On 15/08/05, Ben Yates <bluephonic at gmail.com> wrote:
> Still, someone wrote into boingboing with the following:
> 
> "I can't say who I am, but I do work at a company that uses Wikipedia
> as a key part of online marketing strategies. That includes planting
> of viral information in entries, modification of entries to point to
> new promotional sites or "leaks" embedded in entries to test diffusion
> of information. Wikipedia is just a more transparent version of
> Myspace as far as some companies are concerned. We love it (evil
> laugh).
> 
> On the other side, I love it from an academia/sociological standpoint,
> and I don't necessarily have a problem with it used as a viral
> marketing tool. After all, marketing is a form of information, with
> just a different end point in mind (consuming rather than learning)."
> 
> How well can wikipedia protect itself against this unfamiliar sort of
> systemic bias?

Doubt it's even true. Some tiny article hidden in the depths which
gets four visitors a month (ie new page patrollers!) probably isn't
the best way to promote a product/whatever...


Dan