Moles, trolls, spies and lurkers

There was a hugely entertaining little spat at WebMasterWorld when the pack rounded on one poster because they thought that he was too pro Google and probably a Google stooge.

Post #156 has ThatAdamGuy saying

I know that Google actually reads all of their feedback, and I went ahead and sent some autolinks suggestions their way.....I hope others here will post their thoughts in this thread and e-mail Google directly to offer constructive suggestions on making the toolbar (autolinks function and beyond) more useful.

Problem was this was after 155 posts in the thread, where he had been the only one to defend the Autolink feature on the Google toolbar. This was the final straw for Multiman. In a post that stood for some time before being deleted by the mods, he accused ThatAdamGuy of being a Google employee, and perhaps (gasp) even the famed Googleguy himself in another guide

GoogleGuy, ThatAdamGuy, co-incidence? I find the latest post to be very suspicious.
And if not the same Guy, with my apologies to the former, then perhaps the latter is simply looking for a job with the Orwellian-style "Dept. of Mis-Information" at G$ or works there already?

"I know that Google actually reads all of their feedback"

How can ThatAdamGuy "know" that? And who would say such a thing that way except for someone connected or trying to be connected to the never-ceasing-to-be-evil G$?

ThatAdamGuy comes back with with a defence

I'm somewhat reluctant to respond to the "when did you stop beating your wife" stuff, but let me put some stuff to rest:

1) I am not a Google employee, a contractor, etc.... much less GoogleGuy. I do not work for Google.

2) I am, frankly, not likely to ever be a Google employee for a variety of personal reasons.

3) I have written a number of Google of criticisms here and elsewhere; ironically, one of them was deleted here on WW bcause it was deemed inflamatory. I don't believe Google can do no wrong....

4) How do I know that Google reads all the feedback it gets? As I noted earlier in this thread, I have a bunch of friends at Google, including several that READ AND PROCESS FEEDBACK (none of my friends work on or have worked on the Gtoolbar, btw). Call me naive, call me a shill, call me anything but late for dinner, but I believe my friends when they tell me that every piece of feedback is read.

Entertaining stuff, and without doubt Adam is not a Google employee. But you may ask who Multiman is (a school of thought believes he posted previously under the nom de geurre of Everyman) . You may well ask who any of us are

The bottom line is that the web and blogging have become so important that large companies need to employ people to "police" the web on their behalf. These are professionals from the PR dept. At best the contact is open and above board, we can see where "GoogleGuy" is coming from, but there are a stack of them out there now who are more, shall we say "subtle" in their approach. So when you read posts that are pro or anti, always ask yourself "who is this guy working for and who is paying their salary"