If there’s anything that the recent furors regarding MySpace’s snafu and the Digg implosion has impressed upon me, is that conspiracy theories and entitlement syndromes, previously reserved mainly for political viewpoints has become just as prevalent in commerce.Power to the people. And the people are pissed. Sometimes irrationally so. And more and more, there are clear lines of distinction and tremendous vitriol that devolves into mob behavior. For every one rational point is a hundred rabblerousers.

It’s nothing new of course. But now the discourse spreads quicker than ever before due to the nature of social media and our perpetual connectedness. It doesn’t take much to create social proof. All it takes is one well connected irate twitterer, competitive spirits rise, and suddenly it’s an unstoppable powderkeg with every major blog reporting and adding their slant. The mob becomes louder, angrier and bigger. Next thing you know, if you’re the target of the mob’s furor, you’re f’d in the a.So “transparency” is the new buzzword. But it’s an important theme. Technological innovations have made consumer data more available than ever. To both marketers and identity thieves. Marketing efforts can be targeted to degrees never before dreamed about. But similarly, corporate data is now more available than ever too. And because the communication dynamic has become flattened, any skeleton in the closet can and will be exposed. So the power’s to the people in ways like never before. Google owns me. But I can pwn Google.

So this brings me back to my original point. The nature of the company-consumer relationships have changed. No own really owned anyone previously. Or at least consumers didn’t know or think about it. Now everyone owns everyone. And everyone knows it. And thus, everyone has a sense of entitlement. Consequently, all the vertical relationships become increasingly adversarial. Because the lines of entitlement are always clearer in a vertical relationship versus a horizontal relationship.And in the end, it’s the consumers who always win, because companies need consumers more than the reverse (the beauty of competition).