Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Will Google Ban Trade in Trademarks?. I'm noticing enough buzz on the topic to merit bringing it up here - folks on the boards are talking about whether Google might ban the practice of bidding on trademarked terms. The original rumour came from a Google UK source, reported on Corante, first mentioned on Webmasterworld, the grandaddy of the SEM/SEO discussion boards. From that thread: A friend of mine attended a Google University seminar at Earls Court (London, UK) on Thursday last week. Apparently one of the guys from Google said that they were planning to phase out affiliate bidding on AdWords 'very soon'. The reason - showing several ads for the same merchant reflects badly on the user's experience. I'm a full-time affiliate who primarily uses AdWords to send customers to the exact product page on a merchant's website. If this is true quite frankly I'm in trouble. I called my account rep immediately in horror and he said he'd heard nothing of the sort. I would certainly hope Google would give plenty of warning if they were planning such a huge change. The implications are significant here - the affiliate industry, which makes a lot f money arbitraging trademarked keywords, would be dramatically impacted. And Google stands to lose what may well be a significant revenue stream. But I sense there may be more at work here than merely "improving users' experience." The UK information may be unfounded rumor, but the fact is, Google (and Overture) face a very serious threat from lawsuits over trademarked terms. In short, Geico (yup, owned by Google hero Warren Buffet) and American Blinds both have very serious complaints pending against Google, and both litigants are not going to go away. The cases are winding their way toward what could be a very public and very unpleasant discovery period. Their... [John Battelle's Searchblog] 4:04:20 PM    comment []

More on extreme home makeover story. I learned more on the Extreme Home Makeover story. (This is ABC's top-rated show). Christopher, the design producer of the show, told me yesterday that the home they are building was designed on a Tablet PC (and that Christopher wants a Tablet PC too after seeing the architect do his work). I wanna meet the architect. The family in question has very little idea what will be waiting for when they come back on Wednesday (the family was sent to Disneyworld for the week to get them out of town). The Seattle PI has the story here. Also, Christopher says that they thought of Microsoft because they try to get local businesses involved in the rebuilding of these homes. He was calling everyone in town looking for help. Who did he stumble across in his search? Todd Bishop of the Seattle PI. Todd told him to call me (he got my cell phone off of my blog). Thanks Todd for sending him along. After talking to Christopher I've added this show to my Tivo. I don't watch much TV anymore, but I can understand why this show is ABC's top-rated one. Oh, someone asked why email isn't good enough? Well, many people want to talk with a human being when attempting to do business. And, they want to make sure they got through. Email is too easily ignored. It's also impersonal. It's also hard to explain a vision or your philosophy in email. And, when you're trying to change the world (for a family) in a weekend, I can totally understand why they'd pick up the phone instead of send out a bunch of emails. By the way, I've had my cell phone up here for years and I've never gotten an unimportant phone call. In fact, so far I've only gotten maybe a dozen calls over the years at all. Oh, and thanks to the Microsoft employees who responded to my emails. I work with the best people. [Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger] 4:02:39 PM    comment []