John Robb points to a good example of how weblogs can can work for and against corporations in the context of Google searches. He goes on to talk about the monetary value of positive reviews in Weblogs and asks why PR people aren't all over webloggers to do reviews so that they can ensure that positive reviews come up on Google. I liked his conclusion:
I guess they are too busy sending out press releases that nobody reads.
I, for one, would not want to be approached by a PR person that is wanting to influence my writing and I don't want to see this come to fruition. Weblogs can work for businesses, but I think they need to work for them by building trust in their community of webloggers, inside and outside the company. I have a feeling that PR works counter to this idea by seeking to seed the discussion in the company's favor- doing away with the objectivity that can be so important.