You know, for a company that uses “Proprietary Technology” to aid their clients, they sure as heck don’t have a mastery of basic PR. For instance, in his comment to me, Griffin said that they don’t try to hide themselves. Then, his spiders come in unmarked.

Wait, I smell smoke… Someone’s pants may be on fire.

As for NetVocates, I don’t think the business owner’s political position necessarily dictates his business practices. I’d bet Mr. Griffin would cash a check from a liberal think tank just as soon as we would cash one from a conservative org.

That said, I also wonder about his “diverse clientelle.” Chip indicates that NetVocates was set up earlier this year. How many clients can you amass in that amount of time and have it be all that diverse?

I think organizations of both major political mindsets are wise to keep their finger on the pulse of the blogosphere (although I’m not thrilled with the pay-per-troll aspect of NetVocates), so I’m sure that Mr. Griffin’s business plan does not include any kind of political discrimination. $$ from liberal groups is still $$.

Assuming Chip’s client base is “diverse” might be a big assumption though - check out “townhall.com” (which he also was involved with) and see how diverse the spectrum of opinion there is…

I’ll also note that I wasn’t suggesting that global warming is their only interest - other blogs have noted them watching for “coke” and “fat tax”, “net neutrality” and various other hot topics.

As for global warming being caused by humans - I base my belief on the scientific concensus rather than any political belief (or any concern I may have for the environment) - I think Science magazine’s survey of the field says it all:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686

But I’m happy to consider any other well founded theories people may have - even paid for theories…

I would blame that on the fact that, as Chip Griffin says, “our client base is diverse and there are countless organizations…” Different clientel may have had an interest in this blog and there may be no relation between the blogs mentioning Al Gore and ours. Although it’s fun to play “conspiracy theorist” for a while, I think that we can close the books on this.

I think Chip has done a good job of defending his company and explaining their motives. I’m sure it’s going to be profitable as there is certainly a reason companies and groups of people should be interested in what the blogosphere has to say.

Incidentally, Big Gav, I don’t think there are many people out there who actually deny global warming. That the earth is in a warming trend is not in dispute. The question is the cause of the warming. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I tend to believe that this is part of a normal earth climate cycle and not the result of human activity. Certainly we should do as much as we can to be good stewards of this earth, but I don’t buy into all the apocalyptic hype.

Hmm..I’m guessing NetVocates’ bot mines comments too. Great, I’ve just given them more red meat!

My initial guess is that they were working for a climate change advocacy group - but the alternative is that their working for some bunch of Exxon funded global warming denial monkeys like the “carbon dioxide is good for you” freaks at the CEI…