alt-text: screenshot of the paid search engine in question, using their free trial to search for brand name mentions + “astroturfing”, filtered by fediverse sites
PS: I’ve spent like an hour digging into comment histories of people who mention paid search. Best believe though companies are gonna be PROS at seeding comment histories by now.
They have a really small userbase, but it lines up well with the demographics here: Early adopter, tech enthusiasts with a distrust in Google and tired of how bad search is now.
Early adopters are generally very excited about whatever they’ve picked up. They feel the same way about a search engine the same way I feel about wearing only the same brand of black socks. Super excited to tell everyone about it whenever I get the chance because of how much it changed my life.
Some positivity is certainly genuine.
The volume does seem suspect.
Shoutout to them for not censoring it, at least!
alt-text: screenshot of the paid search engine in question, using their free trial to search for brand name mentions + “astroturfing”, filtered by fediverse sites
PS: I’ve spent like an hour digging into comment histories of people who mention paid search. Best believe though companies are gonna be PROS at seeding comment histories by now.
They have a really small userbase, but it lines up well with the demographics here: Early adopter, tech enthusiasts with a distrust in Google and tired of how bad search is now.
Early adopters are generally very excited about whatever they’ve picked up. They feel the same way about a search engine the same way I feel about wearing only the same brand of black socks. Super excited to tell everyone about it whenever I get the chance because of how much it changed my life.
Indeed.
I’ve said in a previous discussion I was sympathetic given “I’ve sounded like an ad before.” We evangelize great stuff.
Now in the history of their business has any employee ever even mentioned the brand name without disclosing their affiliation? My money’s on yes.
But guaranteed nerds who love it chime in too.