The carousel of SPAM - or Internet Marketing - is ongoing. As we become wise consumers of information online, the gauntlet is tossed our way as the Marketeers try to find innovative ways of suckering us in.
I've been caught on this a few times, most recently today on a link that was mixed in with (legitimate) "additional articles" on CNN. I clicked on an article that sounded interesting and proceeded to read. At the end of it, I thought to myself "hmm, why do I feel like I'm reading a commercial and not a objective news article".
Suspicions arose and I went through other articles on this website which appears to be another "new oriented" website with sections like: News, Health & Beauty, Financial, Jobs, etc.. My first inkling was that was no Sports tab. I know of very few information portals that would have one. I then proceeded to pick and choose from each tab glancing through the articles and sure enough, the vast majority appeared to be a very subtle commercial.
It's not really all that hard. If you are reading an article, then just take a moment and ask yourself, does it appear that the article is being objective. The answer may not tell you right away if it is SPAM or not, but it will give you a sense.
I should add that I really shouldn't be referring to this instance as SPAM, as it's not being pushed to my email address, but the intent is the same as so many email messages that we receive on a daily basis.
I guess that the long and short of it is the maxim that has predated the Information Age - Don't Believe Everything You Read.
No comments:
Post a Comment