Yet-another-dustup plays out as yet-another-clueless marketing agency tries to hide behind a fake grassroots movement. An ASK.com hired agency started information-revolution.org complete with offline-advertising to promote it and quickly got busted.

One commenter on the site got it right: “The only revolution going on here is in the comments”.

So we learn the basics again – the fact that everyone can share their opinion easily and in full public view is where the new power lies. Just because you have the nerve and or money to spread a message doesn’t mean you’re going to control it. You may influence some people but you can’t control the direction that influence goes.

On the surface, the result of this so far has been the name-calling, ask-bashing, and the inevitable apology/explanation. But we must admit that the issue of both Google’s dominance and the difference between search result quality and innovation is getting raised too. The controversy of getting caught has almost certainly raised the profile of the campaign to many times its organic potential.

Like a celebrity checking into rehab as a career move, it’s not hard to imagine getting caught as a strategy. I’m not advocating it, but thinking it impossible would be naive.