Trademark wars…Google yet again proves its monopolistic hold over the search market.
Posted by Melissa Fillau on 16 May 2008 at 09:26 am | Tagged as: PPC
Google have changed their Trademark Rules and are now allowing companies to bid on their competitor’s Trademarks. The associated ad copy cannot contain any reference to this Trademark name though.
Why are Google doing this? Are they enhancing the user experience? Opinions definitely seem to differ on this topic. Some think that Google is simply trying to make money by forcing companies to bid on their own Trademarks. Others argue that Google is increasing the user experience by offering them more choice.
Personally I think that companies like Tesco, who are refusing to bid on competitor keywords on ethical grounds, need to be congratulated.
If I had to enter the search term ‘Tesco’ and see sponsored links for Sainsbury, Waitrose or Morrison’s appear ahead of Tesco, I would be immensely annoyed . Maybe it’s just me, but if I am searching for a particular Trademark term, that is what I’d like to find. Not one of their competitors.
I’m sure Google would argue that you may be searching for a Trademark name by default and be more than happy with the fact that you now have more options.
Many have said that bidding battles will ensue over the next few days, but having searched for the aforementioned Trademark terms today, I haven’t yet come across one that is bidding on another’s Trademark. Have they all taken the ethical high ground or do they hold the same sentiment – ‘If somebody were searching for [Tesco], why would they click on a [Waitrose] ad’?
One advantage that the ‘Trademarked’ business has is the fact that a portion of the Quality Score relies on the Search Term appearing in the Ad copy. And because competitors cannot include the Trademark name in the Ad copy, this does compensate for other injustices, if only ever so slightly. At least the competitor will end up paying more for the ‘undeserved’ click.
Companies like Lastminute.com and Amazon are not taking this policy change with a pinch of salt. They are both considering legal action and are not alone.
Let’s see if Google will win this war.
