William Gibson might have to wait in line for his royalties. Two years before his first novel was published in 1984, another author examined shills and their tactics in a real world setting.

The author was Remar Sutton and his book "Don't Get Taken Every Time" (1982) had nothing to do with fiction. "Don't Get Taken Every Time" was a how-to manual for prospective car buyers and it's been regularly updated ever since.

According to Sutton, the car dealer slang for such shills was "bird dogs", defining them as "people who send customers to a particular salesman, usually for money". Sutton noted, "...many of these guys take their bird-dogging seriously, working just as hard on this part-time job as they do on their regular jobs."

It's becoming more prevalent both physically and on-line. Gibson has a genius for fictionalizing an emerging and very real phenomenom. Any number of sites offer bonuses for getting new members to join or for posting links on other sites. Car dealers have been joined by just about every other merchant imaginable, particularly for high priced items.

The moment you discount any notion of loyalty, it's very easy to pick up when a "friend" is trying to sell you to someone else. After all, that's what friends are for.

"We're getting back to economic reasons. Que bono? Who gains? What's in it for whom? Before I approach any given situation or evaluate anyone's assumedly altruistic gestures, I can't help but to cynically bring to bear that phrase, Que bono?"
-Anton Szandor LaVey (interview with Eugene Robinson in "The Birth Of Tragedy" Nov.1986)

The main difference between bird dogging and what Marqui is doing is that the bird dogs were paid to be positive. Same thing with "friends" pitching products; they have a vested interest in making the product look good.

Marqui, and the bloggers, say that there's no constraint on what they write, good or bad. The idea, I suppose, is that just mentioning the name and the product will generate a buzz that's helpful. Either that, or Marqui has utmost confidence in the qualit of its product.

Or, it simply wants more beta testers and is using a unique method of getting them, and getting some publicity in the process. Risky? Definitely.

But back to your point: it's all about credibility and perception. Once money changes hands, it's really hard not to discount positive reviews of a product, no matter how much the reviewers and product manufacturer gush about independence and objectivity.

Also, as one commenter on another blog observed, these bloggers are risking some credibility as well.

If nothing else, it's an interesting marketing experiment. I hope someone will follow it and give us a debriefing at the end. An objective, unpaid debriefing, that is.

I hope that it becomes blogger etiquette/ethics to prominently post who is paying them for what, and also to identify other significant relationships, such as employee or ownership relationships, no matter what they are for. Some do already. Most blogs I visit have given little thought to this or think so informally about this medium that it hasn't occurred to them yet. To many bloggers and their readers the medium still has the flavor of a public diary. My perception is that those days will rapidly draw to a close, as commercial interests are naturally drawn into the space.

Likewise, responsible bloggers NOT in those relationships need to make a prominent and permanently visible statement to the effect that the blogger takes no payment (or payola or perquisite in any other form) for the views expressed on their blog.

As free and new as this medium is, in its form and fashion, it will soon find it has a responsibility, as a defacto extension of the fourth estate, to identify its interests and affiliations to its constituency. Otherwise even innocent bloggers will soon risk automatic classification, in people's minds, in instances where no such declarations are made, with other unscrupulous money-centric impostors.

You are seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of the emergence of this issue.

Hey Eric, don't you think this would be a good time to get out in front of it, and avoid the pile-up?

I'll write about anything anyone wants for a hundred bucks a month. I'll throw photos in fer nuthin'.....

Wallace, admit it...you'd blog for peanut brittle!