Whatever happened to conflict of interest objectivity? People are less likely to trust a review from someone who is making money off of saying how great a product is.
To stick with the camera example in the original article, for any expensive purchase people will likely read reviews on a few specialized sites (eg dpreview.com) and on discussion forums where they can ask experts, other owners etc. But I'd wager there's a lot more ad revenue that goes to, say, cnet.com even though their reviews are superficial and crap. In the old days if you wanted to buy a decent camera you'd buy photography magazines and pore over the reviews, readers' letters etc. - and that's where the glossy full-color adverts from Canon, Nikon etc. would be (and still are, but the magazines have really shrunk). I don't think websites do nearly as well as the print magazines did even though they may be putting in just as much work and delivering just as much value to their readers.