Truth in advertising?

This looked interesting (in a “hmm, reminds me of the million dollar home page idea” sort of way) – an advertising site that includes only blogs.

Then I read what BoingBoing’s Xeni Jardin had to say about it:

BoingBoing reader Darren Rowse just pointed us to a shady site called World Blog Center, which touts itself as “prestigious virtual real estate location in which blogs from a variety of industry sectors are housed.” I prefer to think of them as lying assholes, because they’re claiming that BoingBoing is a “tenant,” and exploiting the BoingBoing logo and name without our permission in their press releases, on their website, and — according to folks they’ve hit up for cash — in spam emailings soliciting paid membership.

That’s even more interesting. The site shows logos of some pretty well-known businesses and blogs like Business Week, Six Apart, Seeking Alpha, Search Engine Watch, iLounge, Techdirt, Slashdot. I wonder if those are listed in a similar way to BoingBoing?

If so, beware of this place. Actually, as BoingBoing mentions the word ‘spam,’ beware of it anyway.

[Edit] When writing this post, I couldn’t connect to Darren Rowse’s site. Now managed to – and you should read the comments to his post. Plus Darren’s update post. So the title of my post should probably now read something like ‘Beware: advertising scam.’

Neville Hobson

Social Strategist, Communicator, Writer, and Podcaster with a curiosity for tech and how people use it. Believer in an Internet for everyone. Early adopter (and leaver) and experimenter with social media. Occasional test pilot of shiny new objects. Avid tea drinker.

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