Slashdot Mirror
BP Buys "Oil Spill" Search Term
technology_dude found an unsurprising but amusing little story that BP is buying keywords on Google and Yahoo for things like "Oil Spill" to help spin some damage control. I guess if you can't plug your spill, the least you can do is try to clog the flow of information.
If i google "oil spill" here (Netherlands) it does not show sponsered links.
One is to:
www.BP.com/OilSpillNews "Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill Learn More about How BP is Helping."
The other is:
Tar Ball Burner(tm) "Collect free tar balls from beaches and turn them into unleaded gas!"
Please slashdot both of them.
"His name was James Damore."
Relax, dude, I'm pretty sure we can all find plenty of things to blame BP for without pretending that buying keyword impressions is somehow harmful.
Go google "oil spill". Sure enough, the top sponsored link will be the BP oil spill site. The other sponsored link will be... yet another partison point of view from someone who was willing to pay to get a message out. That's what sponsored links are.
Right below them - right where they always are - you still find the real search results. How that squares with the flow of information being "clogged" is beyond me.
I'd find more to complain about if BP wasn't trying to present a strong media presence. You know, saying "I'd like my life back" or something like that.
You do realise that they've bought an ad space, they're not paying to bury all the other organic search results. It's one ad that appears in the clearly marked sponsored area and links to a page that gives some information about how they're trying (and failing) to do anything, with some webcams and a pitiful "have you got any ideas to help?" request. It's hardly preventing people finding the information they want, any more than Dulux are trying to destroy our cultural heritage by preventing us accessing information on the great artists because they show an ad when I search for "painting".
While it may be good PR for them to have what they have on the Oil Spill link, it actually IS a very helpful link versus the rest of the results. Have you actually looked at what they have on that page? While the highlighted area is basically to let people know what they are doing, there is a bunch of very useful information and links also on that page. Important phone numbers, links to the four State response websites, ROV footage...stuff that they don't HAVE to put on a "Damage Control" link. They may only have done it because that was the only way to have any hope of repairing their image once this is over, but it's a better source of information that most of the other links you'll find in the results. AND it's in the sponsored link section, clearly pointing out that it's not just a run of the mill search result.
The problem is, apparently, that the well is incredibly unstable. They had a list of other ideas in the event that their "top kill" method didn't work. They didn't even try them because they were seeing pressure numbers and other signs that the well was unstable. They are, reportedly, afraid that if they try to stop the flow completely at the blowout preventer that the pressure will destroy the blowout preventer and the well creating a huge, uncontrolled leak that is coming out of many more places and at a higher volume than is currently coming out of that riser pipe.
Tell your senator that you want more transportation options besides automobiles
Yes, because there aren't enough empty buses and light rail trains rumbling around town.