What’s Online: Stuffing The Electronic Ballot Box

IT was just a matter of time before marketers would try to game the system at Digg.com. The site allows users to post links to mostly technology-oriented news items to be voted on (or dugg) by other users. Those items with more Diggs get more prominent placement on the site. The idea is that what your peers find interesting, you will also find interesting.

When marketers and spammers try to manipulate the rankings to promote a company, product or Web site, the system breaks down.

CNet News.com reported this week that Karim Yergaliyev, 19, one of the top 30 diggers, whose stories get the most diggs from fellow users, agreed to a barter transaction from a marketer, Nathan Schorr, the business development manager for JetNumbers. In exchange for free service, Mr. Yergaliyev acknowledged, he planted an article about JetNumbers, which provides virtual telephone numbers (news.com).

I never do it, Mr. Yergaliyev told News.com, but the week JetNumbers asked me, I met this girl and I was really happy with life. I wanted to help anybody.

Mr. Schorr said it was all an honest mistake on his part: he didnt know the rules. News.com notes that he did have enough knowledge to seek out the top 30 or so Digg users and pitch them the same offer.

News.com also reported this month that there were companies in the business of gaming sites like Digg and Reddit. Neil Patel, chief technology officer of the Internet marketing firm ACS, told News.com that companies charge as much as $15,000 to get content up on Digg.

Dueling Videos A short video produced by the advocacy group Public Knowledge, available on YouTube, has won plaudits for its clear, concise explanation of net neutrality: the effort to prevent Internet service providers from offering tiered service to content providers, which critics say will make Web sites that pay extra more accessible than those that dont. This is a great explanation of net neutrality, one YouTube user wrote. I finally get it! The video is so straightforward, in fact, that it might be called dull.

Another video, also on YouTube, is much better produced, complete with nerve-shaking music and a voiceover straight out of a political ad. But it never explains what net neutrality is — it merely describes it as mumbo jumbo, vaguely asserts that its bad for consumers, and takes a few potshots at Google (which favors net neutrality).

This second video, we learn from the tiny type at the end, was paid for by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (youtube.com).

Pursue the Children Patti Santangelo became something of a cause célèbre for recording-industry overzealousness over the last year. The mother of five faced a lawsuit by five big music companies represented by the Recording Industry Association of America, which accused her of illicitly downloading music. She has always insisted that shes not guilty, and indeed didnt quite know at first what downloading even was.

The music companies have dropped their lawsuit against her, though their lawyer, Richard Gabriel, wrote in court papers that they would probably have won. Instead, he wrote that the companies will pursue defendants children. The case against Ms. Santangelos daughter, 16, and son, 20, will continue (ecommercetimes.com).

Browser Wars Redux According to W3Counter, the various flavors of the Firefox Web browser now make up about a quarter of the market, compared with about 65 percent for Microsofts Internet Explorer. The remaining 10 percent is split among browsers like Opera and Safari, which is just for Mac users (w3counter.com).

Lost in Translation Most people have heard about the trouble that General Motors had trying to sell the Chevrolet Nova in Spanish-speaking countries. The company learned too late that No va means it doesnt go in Spanish. But it turns out there are plenty of other examples, as enumerated in Moronland.nets Top 13 Worst Slogan Translations Ever. For example, the American dairy industry tried to export its Got Milk? slogan to Mexico and ended up asking Mexicans Are you Lactating?

Complete links are at nytimes.com/business. E-mail: whatsonline@nytimes.com.

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