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Yesterday, while reading an article on USA Today, my eyes gazed over to prominently displayed “News Stories” on the right side of the page. Clicking through seems to reach respectable site, apparently presenting TV affiliated news site, complete with anchor photos, videos and long authentic looking article.

Except all of that is just an elaborate scheme to try and get gullible consumers to trust this fabricated article. Fancy backend algorithm generates random people names (sometimes for same photos, as I confirmed clicking on similar Ads from another page) and even articles themselves change depending on the area your IP is coming from, to try and get you to think that local reporter is bringing you this important news “information”. Of course the content of the article itself is also mostly fake, and so are all the other links on the page, purporting to be other categories of this “news site”. In reality, these links are just a cheap-trick, redirecting people to unsuspecting sites which are probably paying for “click through”, hoping for quality leads but instead getting ripped.

In one of the links I landed on a site claiming to be New-York’s WSVI television station. Of course in reality it is just another site scammers generated, and I wonder what real ABC affiliated WSVI station, which actually broadcasts in Virgin Islands, would say about this?

The wares they are peddling are suspicious or worse. The Work-At-Home scam is especially nefarious and I found earlier reference to similar tactics, even infringing on CNN’s trademark logo.

I am pretty sure the $5 cream they are peddling is either unsafe for your skin, or completely inert. And the $9 a week miraculous Insurance they are promising – I calculated that I pay less with respectable Travelers insurance, instead of their “unidentified” company.

How can (supposedly) respectable USA Today newspaper and online site stoop to such low quality advertisement sham? I literally felt that I need to run and tell my children about yet another evil on this planet that they need to protect themselves from.

But I also tried to take a step back and consider if I am overreacting. Perhaps this is the future of online Advertising? Should we just adjust our expectations that anything and everything we click on the web may end up directing us to Insurance site (regardless if we have a car) or maybe Viagra-like cheap pills offer (regardless of….). After all, how else are quality sites like USA Today can support their staff of professional journalists? We always knew that everything we find on the Internet cannot be trusted, right? Why would we ever use Wikipedia at all?

You have to draw your own conclusion, and talk to your own kids. Meanwhile I am uninstalling USA Today app from my iPhone and will think twice before clicking on any link leading to USA Today site – I hope the advertising revenue they got from AdBlade was worth losing all those readers over.

I am back from vacation, and it was very rejuvenating. To totally relax this time I spent few free minutes between activities on some casual gaming, mostly on Facebook and Steam. I have been a long fan of Steam, but the improvements in Facebook games were a surprise for me. I love how Steam lets you purchase digitally and then just install and play on your different computers, as much as needed, with no discs to store or find.

My main observation is that Facebook gaming finally starting to realize the social aspect. Some in pure competitive fashion (like highest score in Biggest Brain), while many others are all about socializing (YoVille) and sharing gifts and showing off Farms and Restaurants you built. It is good fun and a new way to “stay in touch” with people you care about.

Onto the main topic – Facebook gained major momentum for our family during this season’s family vacation. We met many family members in-person, and most of their kids already had Facebook (what’s with silly 13 years old limit on Facebook?). So my kids signed up and were able to connect to their relatives and stay in touch, even though they often meet in-person once a year or less!

But, with all the benefits, I got really worried today. Earlier I became a fan of Lily Allen on Facebook. I really love her fun and honest lyrics, combined excellent music style. So what do I see right after? “Love Lily Allen – Check This Out” Ad appearing on Facebook. Clearly targeted, no doubt and once I clicked it, it took me straight into iTunes to some singer’s album, I never heard of!

I haven’t decided if this a benefit or a burden? It is definitely strange how Facebook doesn’t use same common sense to stop pitching me “Dating” sites, since my profile clearly indicates “Married”!!!

If they approach this carefully, it can be real boon for Advertisers. Facebook knows my real location (home address, and sometimes mobile location via Facebook Mobile on iPhone), and my likes/dislikes. I am Papa Johns pizza fan on there also, how long before other pizzerias will start bombarding me with their best offers to win me over? Rather scary… A good short Sci-Fi story comes to mind. You can listen to it for free on the excellent EscapePod.org (warning, rated R). That’s where I heard it, along with Advertising Warfare concept mentioned.

I normally enjoy Robert Cringely’s insightful articles, but the one I heard today was nothing like his other works. In fact, my first reaction was “Grow Up, not the whole World revolves around you!”. But few seconds later it hit me – this is a modern reincarnation of Sales Pitch!

I’ll give you my two sentences summary, or you can read the entire post on his blog. It starts of by complementing Google for their focus on efficiency. Then proceeds to emphasize the importance of the relevant component (hard-drive), and ends with “why not check out this awesome product” pitch. Classic Marketing Formula: Gain Favor via Complement, Gain Trust by presenting logical arguments about importance of “X”, and finally mention a better “X”.

Brilliant or Sleazy? You decide… But sure way to get the message across, which is the hardest part of any marketing effort. I am sure that Google employees monitor the “tubes” for their company name, and certainly one or two (likely more) will forward a link to relevant Senior decision maker, and with enough incoming emails, that decision maker will take notice, enough to probably learn more about this technology. This is 90% of the sale effort, right there! Think about how hard it would normally be to get senior management’s attention to even agree to hear out your Sales pitch?!

Everyone is talking on the web about Social Marketing (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) and other such silly obvious things. For me, as soon as I see someone continuously taunting their own product(s), I un-follow, no matter how fancy the product is.

Maybe I am approaching this completely wrong, and Bob has nothing to gain personally from Google buying all these (apparently yet Non-existent) MFD drives. Either way, this approach is definitely novel, especially the ending, turning the discussion away from product and into personal unjust conflict?

Sensational (pun intended)!!!