http://government.zdnet.com/?p=4804
Some people obviously feel that they have a right to certain rankings on Google, and that Google has a monopoly even though there are literally hundreds of competing search engines out there.
Thoughts?
This is a big thing in my industry.
Google has set themselves up with this by not allowing trademarks previously based on brand protection.
Like I think it was said on an episode of TWiT a year ago, Google’s meat and potatoes isn’t the search, it’s the Ad Words. And this is going to really screw them over if it happens to succeed.
Hey Liberty Student, forgive my misunderstanding, but what do you mean by this exactly? Did Google not previously allow trademarks at all or something?
Dave
Ok, this is PPC (pay per click). I don’t specifically do that, but I do work with search marketing. Google had limitations when you bid on keywords like “Chrysler” or inserting the word in your ad copy “Get a cheap Chrysler here”. It was one or both, I do not know off the top of my head. Again, I play with search, where anything goes as long as the trademark is not in your domain name.
www.chryslersucks.com = legal problems
chrysler.cars-suck.com (which is based off www.cars-suck.com) is ok.
Anyway, Google’s reason for keeping people from utilizing trademark was likely to avoid legal hassles as seen now. Technically, Google violates all sorts of IP laws (by caching web pages, which technically is re-printing without authorization) but I don’t see how the use of trademark on their pages as content (even ad content) in anyway violates trademark. Everyone clearly knows that they are on Google when they see CHRYSLER on the page.
Google is really hurting because the boom is done and online sales growth is slowing. Now alphabet agencies are starting to go after PPC advertisers for bad products, with misleading ads and specifically shady terms of service on the end product.
In many cases, the person running the ad is only a marketer performing arbitrage. He finds the keywords that deliver buyers, enhances his ad copy, and finds the optimal bid per click that allows him to maximize sales conversions that earn him a commission.
So he pays $0.25 per click, and he gets $35 per sale. He has to find a way to get conversions under 140 clicks in order to make a profit. Generally, skilled marketers can make 50% of their lead commission, sometimes more.
Hope this wasn’t too esoteric.
Okay, gotcha. Just didn’t understand what you meant at first, and didn’t have the history of that particular aspect of their business.
Thanks for the explanation!
Dave