I read a handful of blogs.  I’ve noticed that a few of the genealogy blogs seem to hash the same news as each other, making it a little bit dry.  They’ll actually post other companies press releases and junk.  As an example, if Ancestry.com had a new feature, the bloggers would share it:

PODUNK, IA – Exciting news today from the developer of Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis ac libero. Nam eros neque, convallis eu, tempor ac, gravida id, diam. Donec a lectus id dui scelerisque varius. Nulla quis neque. Quisque varius lectus volutpat sapien. Pellentesque libero lorem, rhoncus eget, fermentum non, tempus vel, leo. Nam orci libero, euismod vitae, consequat vitae, malesuada non, est. Aliquam at est. Praesent consequat. Aenean ac neque et ante dictum varius. Ut ultrices aliquam orci. Etiam vel turpis. Ut ut ipsum.

I dunno.  Maybe it’s newsworthy.  I guess it is for the original company … but probably not exciting enough for the blogosphere to simply repost it everywhere.  At any rate, I was looking at some of the hyperlinks in one of the posts:

http://www.evilcompany.com/click.mv?FTC=1234&A=evilbloggersusername

As soon as I see a URL that contains the word CLICK and/or a username, red flags go off in my head.  They usually have to do with advertisements, affiliate programs, finder fees … etc.  In this case, it’s just that.  The blogger was posting “News” as a service to his readers, that generates revenue for him every time someone reads it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to advertisements and people making money from their efforts.  But, do bloggers owe it to their readers to make advertisements obvious?  Is it okay to hide ads in what appear to be innocent links?