Reader Posts
« previous | TPM CAFÉ READER POSTS HOME | next »
Political mischief-making on Gmail?
I believe there is a whole unknown underworld of mischief-making on Gmail. For instance, there is a Representative named Rob Andrews who is challenging longtime Senator Frank Lautenberg for the Democratic nomination in NJ. I clicked on a link that said, "Andrews 08: Learn more about Rob Andrews," and it went to a site detailing all sorts of terrible things about him, clearly designed by Lautenberg's supporters. From what I understand, Lautenberg is better than Andrews on the issues, but this kind of tactic still seems somewhat less than fair.
I just saw a link that read "The Obama Campaign: The New York Times has the latest on the senator's run for president," and clicked on it. Naive as I am, I just thought it was interesting that the Times was advertising itself by directing readers toward its coverage of Obama's campaign. But what came up when I clicked the link? A whole page of New York Times stories about Bill Clinton.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/bill_clinton/index.html?excamp=GGPOobama&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=PO-S-E-GG-NA-CT-obama
Now, who do you think is responsible for that? What is this meant to accomplish?
Comments (6)
here is the proper link:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/bill_clinton/index.html?excamp=GGPOobama&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=PO-S-E-GG-NA-CT-obama
May 9, 2008 11:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is it the links that appear on the right side of whatever mail you're reading? They're supposed to be contextually related ads so, if your mail is about politics then ads about politicians or a campaign or a newspaper shows up.
May 9, 2008 11:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
The links I was referring to have been the ones at the top, where the "web clips" and news headlines are shown. Some of those are sponsored links, right?
Actually, now that I've checked, the misleading "Obama Campaign" link also appears in the sponsored links displayed on the right side of the screen as well.
May 9, 2008 11:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, someone pays Google to show ads based on keywords that are in your email. It's a little creepy to think about but I try not to.
May 10, 2008 12:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
So, here's a question. Supposing this was a paid operation from a 527, against Obama. Will or should Obama use a gambit like this against McCain in the GE?
To me it would be cruel and unusual punishment to make our grandparents more confused than they already are on the interwebs.
May 10, 2008 1:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Creeps me out enough not to use it, but then creepier still the general "consumer" information about us out there being tabulated and aggregated, sold even, every day.
La-de-da. We torture. What, huh? Pretty sparkling thing over there distracts me, mmmmmmmm.
May 10, 2008 2:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Post a Comment