On a serious note, everyone wants their business/product to be a trending topic, next to the water cooler, on twitter, on CNN after the superbowl, but especiall

On a serious note, everyone wants their business/product to be a trending topic, next to the water cooler, on twitter, on CNN after the superbowl, but especially on any social website where the activity can be tracked and easily converted. The social web, the very same sites like Facebook and Twitter that are used by individuals, are utilized [if effectively] in a very different way by businesses and organizations. When done successfully, traffic surges and the brand catches. But even when not done to that degree, companies are able to effectively take advantage of relavent discussion and engage potential customers. If you have a solution, nothing beats talking to people who you know for a fact are facing the problem you solve. With or without the buzz words, businesses such as my employer are very eager to engage potential customers and be louder on the social web than their competitors. It means potential customers turn into sales easily and cheaply. I think it's smart. But I worry about the future of a social web, where our friends get paid to sponsor a message and recommend products to us. The result would probably be mostly noise. I think noise is a problem as data transfer and data storage becomes so cheap. (I'm starting to get off topic but that's why I believe in the longevity of search. Noise needs to be filtered out.)