Uninstalled has the full story behind this innocent, homely little amateur site ilovebees.com that looks like it has been hacked, or hijacked, or just royally screwed up somehow.

If you dig deeper (or Google) it transpires that both the site and the hijacking are part of pre-release marketing for the next installment of the X-Box game Halo, from Bungie Studios.

They have even set up a blog, wherein "Dana" (fictional niece of the fictional owner of the ilovebees site) posts about her efforts to fix the damage to the site, dropping more clues to the convoluted treasure hunt as she goes along.

So is it a fake blog or not? They used a Blogger template, and BlogSpot (Blogger's free blog-hosting service). Uninstalled has looked at the volume of comments on the blog's first 10 posts, and noted that the site is creeping up through the Technorati rankings. There is buzz for the bees... so that's a blog right?

Let's see, it is engaging, check; it uses blog software with all the functionality, check; it has comments, check; it even registers in the rankings, check; but what's the point? Does it have credibility and personality? There is 'Dana', she is fictional and even if the person behind it develops individuality for the character, we know it's a gimmick. Marketing ploy. Clever and amusing but ultimately its sole purpose is to fool the audience into thinking it is something it is not. In my opinion, and I appreciate that others may not share it, is that a blog should offer value for value, that is, something that the readers get for their eyeball.

ilovebees.com and 'Dana's blog' offer entertainment in following the story, so one could say that there is value. And the number of comments seems to indicate that lots of people are having fun, presumably knowing by this stage what's behind it all. So is it a fake blog or not?

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