JD on EP

Secondary evidence of potential manipulation: Last week three of the searchengine-related weblogs described MoveOn.org as "a privacy group". They all used the same phrase, and yet there were few other pre-existing occurences of the two terms in proximity during web searches. (Searching Google now with "moveon ('privacy group' OR 'privacy watchdog')" turns up lots of splogs (boo!) but the newness of the pattern was very clear last week.) Those SEO blogs who described MoveOn as "a privacy group" seem to have had back-channel communication and coordination from Google, and this too really does need to be disclosed, or the peculiar coincidence explained. Otherwise it just seems fishy.

More secondary evidence: at VentureBeat, Eric Eldon observes that MoveOn is not complaining about cross-site tracking, whether via cookie or via IP logging... this is the much more meaningful privacy issue, and Google AdSense, like Facebook Beacons or DoubleClick before them, has the unmonitored capability to track where people go across the web.

Hmm, yesterday you "sourced" "people" at the DNC (democratic national committee) for the MoveOn-Google funding alleged connection. Since DNC is a potential beneficiary of people not contributing to MoveOn (that is, they compete for the same grassroots contributors) I'd like to see much more on this rumor before making conclusions from at as if it were fact.

At this point I'd say ALL the "evidence" is "secondary" and that at the moment you're part of the echo chamber. (signed) mister skeptical. Cheers!

Agreed. You and I cannot tell the level of interaction between Google and MoveOn. They need a little more transparency to protect themselves from such rumors.