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The Inside Google weblog is speculating that when Google employee Mark Jen's blog was temporarily shut down last ...

... week it may have been nothing more than a Google publicity stunt. Inside Google points to a post showing that someone has bought ads on Google that direct readers to Jen's blog.

Inside Google's Nathan Weinberg writes...

Considering that Mark has no reason to purchase ads for his own blog, and neither does anyone else, this lends some support behind the conspiracy theory that the whole situation this week was little more than a publicity stunt.

Meanwhile cooler heads prevail over at the Search Engine Watch weblog, thanks to the esteemed Danny Sullivan ...

The point of this is that anyone can make an ad for anything and point anywhere, at least for a short period of time until Google's editors review the ad -- a process that can take from hours to a few days. So seeing an ad isn't proof that anyone is advertising on anything.

Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.