Swag the Blog

"Blog placement" has become a growing trend in marketing, with elite bloggers receiving gifts like show tickets, laptop computers, trips to Paris and bottles of champagne. A surprising number of bloggers seem unaware of ethics codes that exist to guide relations with advertisers, says Jaap Favier, research director at a technology research company. "The lines are blurring," he said. "Who can we trust? I think we're going to go through a couple of years where it's going to get more confusing. What is true and what is fake?"