From Microsoft to Amazon to countless Internet startups, it seems like everyone is getting into online storage and other forms of cloud computing. But the latest player in the market has a unique -- and somewhat questionable -- technique for advertising its service.

The new entrant is Dilbert creator Scott Adams, who embedded in today's strip a not-very-subtle plug for an online file-sharing and storage service called DilbertFiles.com. What is DilbertFiles.com? In this Nov. 11 post, Adams explained that he worked out a deal with sendyourfiles.com to create a Dilbert-branded version of its service. He explained:

Creating the service was an interesting entrepreneurial move, but it will be even more interesting to see how newspaper editors react to the plug in today's strip. Most publications would be quick to discipline or fire a journalist who similarly touted his side project in an article. Are the standards different for a syndicated cartoonist?

We've sent a message to Adams asking for an explanation. [Update: See Adams' reply below.]

In the meantime, readers are debating the issue on Dilbert.com:

"From today, I stop reading Dilbert cartoons. Adams - you've been wavering a bit of late, but this time you've just gone too far," writes one. "This isn't funny, and is nothing more than a blatant attempt at advertising. Goodbye."

"I think it's a fairly intelligent way to advertise your business," counters another. "Scott may have lost some people who think it was unethical but they'll be a lot more vocal than those who thought the website was good. You'll always get more complaints than you will complements in any industry, cartooning included."

(Thanks to Glenn Fleishman for the tip.)

Update, 7 p.m.: Here's the email Adams sent us this evening, in response to our message asking about the plug:

If you're writing about it, I'm doing my job. Actually, lots of people are blogging about it today because I intentionally violated what readers perceive as a boundary. That's what I do, on a good day. I haven't heard any complaints from newspapers. They would have complained in advance if they had an issue, since they see the comic a week or two before it is published. And frankly they know I push some boundaries.

Remember that Dilbert appears in the business section for many newspapers. While some comic purists will get the heebie jeebies from what they see as gross commercialism (a comment I get on a regular basis anyway), the business community will mostly find it an interesting experiment.

Dilbert has always been a mixture of fantasy and reality. Most of the humor comes directly from real life, including my own. So bringing Dilbertfiles.com into the comic world is less of a stretch with Dilbert than it would be with Garfield. And as you will see when the series unfolds, the story requires Dilbert's product to have something like a Dilbertfiles.com URL.

As an advertisement for Dilbertfiles.com, I expect it to have a trivial impact, so no need to hate me on that level. As a creative violation of what readers expect of a comic strip, it's an attention-getter. The fun part was seeing how many people checked the Dilbertfiles.com URL to see if it was real.

The first rule of art is that you want to make the audience "do something." That could include laughing or crying, but it can also include talking about the art with friends, forming a book club, or in this case trying to figure out if what I did was clever or foolish. I did anticipate a strong reaction.

Scott