DISQUS

Better Communication Results: Bloggers bash Microsoft again, but where’s the disclosure?

  • Mike Sueter · 2 years ago
    Greetings from Germany. Concerning Edelman there's breaking news: http://handelsblatt6.blogg.de/eintrag.php?id=1052
  • Lee Hopkins · 2 years ago
    Argghh! There's where not paying attention in my German language lessons has me undone -- I can't understand a word of it!

    Translation, Mike! What are they saying??
  • Eric Eggertson · 2 years ago
    Lee: I don't think Microsoft/Edelman did an elegant job of handling this. I agree with Neville that the biggest issue about this is disclosure, which was left to each blogger to think of and do something about.

    As for whether it's a bribe, or a legitimate way to get their product in front of influential writers, it seems like a hybrid to me. A lot of people don't have computers that can handle Vista well, so equipping reviewers with the right machine avoids some of the "I tried it and it was awful on my computer" comments. I think the whole thing would have gone under the radar if they'd asked people to return the PCs, or give them as prizes or to charities/non-profits.
  • Mike Sueter · 2 years ago
    Mike, the translation is at the bottom of the article. Here it is:

    Edelman PR und Technorati end their - at least in the German blogsphere - intensely debated partnership. Wolfgang Luenenbuerger-Reidenbach, the head of online conversations at Edelman Germany (and a blogger himself), confirmed my information that both companies won't renew their partnership which is about to run out at year end anyway.

    What he couldn't confirm are informations I got about a meeting in which Richard Edelman got very angry about technical problems at Technorati.

    In the German blogosphere the "Most Influentiel Blogs"-list, published bei Technorati and Edelman was furiously dismissed because of obvious and stupid faults. Strangely enough this pr-desaster could have been avoided, at least in Germany. Local blogger Popkulturjunkie did a similar and more accurate list based on Technorati, the German Blogcharts.

    As a German blogger I wonder what exactly they're doing over at Technorati. The number of faults und blackouts is growing day by day. Many people wonder: Are they just holding out to wait for someone to buy the whole thing?
  • Lee Hopkins · 2 years ago
    Eric: I still think that MS did the right thing by giving out tools that were powerful enough to give a fair review of their software, and give those tools to powerful 'sneezers' (as Seth Godin would say).

    I still think it's more a case of sour grapes and envy, or as you eloquently put it, small children whinging that their bigger siblings get to stay up later.

    Mike: thanks for the translation. I use technorati for my ego searches, but I'm still at a loss of what to make of it as a business model; I think you may be right and they are waiting/praying for someone to come along and snap them up a la YouTube. It's probably the same hope for Linden Lab with Second Life... now THERE'S a service that desperately needs an injection of major capital!