All dressed up with nothing to sell

Some of you may have noticed that I've opened Eldo Telecom to advertisers. The ads you see are not placed by human beings, but by Google's so-called "ad bots" that seek out blogs that accept advertising based on automatic key words searches. Ads you see appearing here aren't chosen by me and don't necessarily represent an endorsement of what's being advertised -- and certainly no guarantee it's even available.

Take for example Comcast's pitch for its high speed Internet services that has appeared today. Many El Dorado County residents clicking on the link are likely to find Comcast has no such service to sell them. That's because Comcast's marketing is also on automatic, run by cyber robots. Going to Comcast's Web site and typing in Camino's ZIP Code, 95709, for example, will produce a message that Comcast's TV programming and high speed Internet service are available in 95709. Not necessarily true. It's only available in parts of the ZIP Code.

Both Comcast and AT&T advertise as if they can deliver broadband to all of El Dorado County when in fact both cover only limited parts of the county. It's not exactly a formula to win the hearts of minds of consumers and violates the maxim of marketing experts to avoid creating customer expectations that cannot be fulfilled.