Archive for the ‘Search Engine News’ Category
Google It! - Budget Direct mis-use Google’s name
A new advertising campaign on Melbourne Television tonight for the car insurance company Budget Direct, is mis-using Google’s name.
Or so one would anticipate, once Google’s lawyers get wind of the incident.
Budget’s popular series of adverts feature a young woman with a French accent advising how you can save on Car Insurance by Calling “Boo-Jet”. The young lady is then corrected by an Australian man “That’s Budget, Love”.
The most recent instalment of the ad sees the young lady telling our Australian friend to “Goo-gal it”, who corrects her and tells her to “Google it”.
Google has been a staunch defender of their brand name since the popular term was penned in TV series in the early 2000’s. Whilst flattering, and a sign of the Search Engine Giant’s success and popularity, Google is concerned such pop-culture references may result in the name no longer being protected under intellectual property laws, where brands such as “band-aid” and “Xeroxíng”get used in conversation to refer to sticking plasters that aren’t owned by the Jonson & Jonson (the owner of band-aid) and the copy device being used to photocopy not actually being a Xerox branded computer.
It is rather surprising and amusing that Budget Direct would use Google in such a context in their advertising, and it is either a deliberate attempt by Budget to gain some publicity (and a possibly costly legal suit), or an oversight by a marketing agency or advertiser, and if so very embarrassing, as any savvy advertiser should know of Google’s advertising and usage guidelines.
Either way, Search Engine News is almost certain that Google and Budget Direct will be in the courts soon.
Online marketing becoming mainstream
It’s not often that you hear of Online Marketing in mainstream media, however your attention is certainly caught when it’s publicised by a major newspaper.
TheAge.com.au recently published ‘the beginner’s guide to Google Adwords‘, targeted at people unfamiliar with Adwords.
The article briefly explains the importance of positioning in the SERPs, the cost of advertising, and targeting ads for your audience.
It unfortunately doesn’t go into detail of how to setup a campaign, nor the time involved and the requirement of managing and refining your ads, or how sophisticated adwords campaigns can be with Geo Targeting and use of the content network, but it is sure to pike the interests of new start-ups, and may artificially increase competitive keyterms for the short-term whilst amatuers experiment on their campaign.
Google Street View Blocked in England
A villager in Buckingham shire, England has challenged the Search Engine Giant, Google’s efforts to capture 3D images of the town’s streets for Google Maps’ Street-view.
A blockade of residents formed in front of Google’s streetview car on April 1st, protesting that they didn’t want images of their homes on the internet, with information and directions to their homes, including what their homes look like, fearing that the service could encourage burglary in the area.
Paul Jacobs, 43 of Broughton in Buckinghamshire first noticed the car from his home, and ran out to confront the driver. He then gathered residents to help form and called the police to the scene.
Jacobs says the service is “not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime”. He cited three burglaries in the community in the past weeks, and believes said “If our houses are plastered all over Google it’s an invitation for more criminals to strike.”
Google’s popular street view is a 3D version of Google Maps, which allows the user to take a 3D virtual tour of a street or neighbourhood. The 3D Images are created by a car driving around a street with various cameras mounted on the car to take pictures of the street to form a 360 degree image, and is later placed into the 3D map.
Google’s street-view is claimed to block out legible images of people’s faces and number-plates of cars, and whilst being a handy service, many privacy groups are concerned over the potential to abuse the service for wrong-doing.
Much of Washington DC including the White-house is removed from Google Satellite maps, amid security concerns, and it is alleged that terrorists used Google maps last year to plot the horrific bombings in Mumbai, which led to a petition asking for the service to be banned.
Paul Jacobs and his fellow villagers in Broughton will continue to oppose the service from entering their village to uphold their privacy, and more importantly, their security.
New Look Website
It’s long overdue, but the Search Engine News website has finally been given a much-deserved face lift.
The website is now ranking quite well, with over 70% of all referring traffic coming from Search Engines, and a reasonable amount of new visitors originating surprisingly, from Twitter.
The site now reflects our modern digital news agency, and is much more attractive than the default wordpress theme we were previously using.
We hope you enjoy the new look website, and more importantly our news articles on the world of Search Engines and the Internet, and we welcome any feedback.
The Search News Team.