Comments on: Google Opening Up Trademarked Keyword Bidding on June 4th

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:08:59 +0000

It’s now a month since this was changed. Since 5th June 09 I have had 0 (zero) impressions! OK, so I’m only a minor fish with a few dollars spend per day budget, but I was happy with the 2-300 or so visitors it brought me every month.

Anyone know what might have happened to my account?

Cheers for the informative article, too.

By: sohbet

sohbet — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:44:58 +0000

thankks you sohbet chat

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:07:31 +0000

I agree with SearchEDU. This is just another way for big brands to push small brands around.

Look at Gatorade. Do you think Kevin Garnett said oh my god, oh my god, Gatorade please sponsor me! I want to endorse your product soooo bad. No. Gatorade said hey KG we’ll pay $500,000 a year to only be seen drinking Gatorade.

That’s garbage. Where is the creativity in that.

The only bright side I see is that it will validate your market if you have competitors bidding on your name. It basically proves you have something other companies care about and that they see you as competition.

You can’t be afraid of people finding your competitors, you should instead show them why you’re better and why you’re an authority in that given market.

At the end of the day though who clicks those links on the side anyways? Let your competition waste their money on pointless pay per click ads.

By: SearchEDU

SearchEDU — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:49:40 +0000

Google is killing small business!

As a regional provider of educational services this is really going to kill my business. Small and mid-sized companies do not have the capital to outbid the top tier conglomerates to protect their own trademark.

Our trade name is all that we have; it is what we have been diligently building for 20+ years. My organization cannot out bid, out SEO, or out advertise the larger competition that spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Without the ability to protect my trademark they will own every aspect of lead generation.

Just like they own the affiliate results pages they are now going to own the search engine results pages (SERPs) as well.

By: Jason Forthofer

Jason Forthofer — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:41:51 +0000

I would imagine that merchants will begin allowing their affiliates to bid on their trademark keywords more. We allow it on all of our programs. I’d rather have one of our affiliates bidding on it and outbidding our competitors (hopefully) or at least taking up some search real estate.

By: Almit

Almit — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:31:45 +0000

i like this

By: David Rothwell | AdWordsAnswers.com

David Rothwell | AdWordsAnswers.com — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:50:31 +0000

Only insecure companies who fear their competition are making noises about this. As a Google user, I *need* to see the full landscape so I can make an informed choice. That is what Google is all about.

And if I search for a term, and see competitor info showing up on the *left* side of the page (Free organic rankings) – is that TM infringement *too*??

What complete nonsense!

By: Paul Lambert

Paul Lambert — Wed, 13 May 2009 06:50:36 +0000

Vendors, merchants, and affiliate networks will stll keep their policies tough. So not much would change except for possibly putting up ads to redirect visitors away from Dot Com’s and to another competing site.

Stink.

By: PPCfool

PPCfool — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:58:38 +0000

I guess Google is just pushing the burden of TM protection back to the companies themselves.

So how does this work when the companies tell you to cease and desist bidding on their TM terms?
I’ve gotten a few, even though google allows bidding on these terms …

By: SearchDarren

SearchDarren — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:43:14 +0000

The companies that are most protective of their trademarked brand name are those who are market leaders and who’s brands are synomonous within the market that they operate. For example, Interflora in the UK are very keen not to let other advertisers let the public know that they offer a competitive and often cheaper product or service. Without the strength of their brand, they have little to offer.

In most examples, it is not really a big deal. The examples used in this article, Honda and Toyota. If you search for Honda, you are looking for a quick link to the Honda website – nothing else. The searcher at this point is not likely to be convinced to go elsewhere based on this search.