The Consumerist appeared on the front page of this Saturday’s New York Times Business section, in an article entitled, “Consumers Have Allies On The Web.”

The Internet, however, has allowed a variation of consumer advocacy to emerge, one that taps into what Mr. Popken calls the “distributed processing power of the readership.”

By that he means that not only do the readers supply a lot of the tips about corporate shenanigans, but the links the blogs have established with other blogs creates an instant network of readers who quickly hold the company up to ridicule.

Consumers are finding these sites useful to pressure companies into fixing a problem in a way that calls made to the customer service center and letters to the chief executive can never accomplish.

Needless to say, our girlfriend is proud of us all. — BEN POPKEN

Consumers Have Allies on the Web [NYT]

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