Brammo Owners Forum

General => Off Topic => Topic started by: protomech on March 27, 2012, 01:12:31 PM

Title: Fun with SEO and advertising
Post by: protomech on March 27, 2012, 01:12:31 PM

I noticed an interesting ad while searching wired - search for "brammo" (http://www.wired.com/search?query=brammo) or "brammo empulse" (http://www.wired.com/search?query=brammo empulse).

"Ads by Google .. Zero Motorcycles-Zero S www.zeromotorcycles.com/ (http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/) Fully Electric Street Motorcycle Fastest-Lightest-Quietest-Cool"

That's .. not a Brammo Empulse.

Oddly, a search in google itself reveals NO ads on the top / right for those two searches. Most other searches on google have ads associated with them. Try a Bing search (http://www.bing.com/search?q=brammo), or yahoo (http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=brammo).

There's nothing illegal here. Judges in both the US and Europe have ruled (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/google-to-sell-trademarked-adwords-in-europe-like-us.ars) that buying up search terms using a competitors trademarked name is legal. Whoever is responsible - whether Zero or a third party advertising contractor - is playing hardball though.

Title: Re: Fun with SEO and advertising
Post by: Phantom on March 27, 2012, 06:09:54 PM

I have noticed that for a while. I have done the reverse and Brammo has not paid for that kind advertising when you search for Zero.

It may not be illegal, but it seems like a shady business choice.