Proud Sponsors of the Virginia Tech Shooting?

Media Outlets Buying Google Keywords

Posted by Ken Wheaton on 04.17.07 @ 03:14 PM

I guess it all boils down to business. A reader e-mailed to alert us to the results of a Google search for Virginia Shooting. Seems The New York Times and Inside Edition, among others, have purchased the key words.

Perhaps not quite as bad as Dateline's FaceBook group seeking out friends of the shooter (about halfway down in this post), but still ...

From a purely financial perspective, this makes sense I guess. After all, even here at Ad Age we're always hectoring marketers to be smarter about key-word marketing -- whether it be Taco Bell trying to put a positive spin on those rats or small pet-food companies getting the word out about safe alternatives.

I've yet to figure out if the media companies specifically bought these words or if it was the result of one of those fancy Google algorithms combined with a contextual ad program. (We've got calls out and will use the wonderful powers of the interwebs to update.)

Either way, it strikes me as incredibly tacky.

6 Comments

By Anthony | New York, NY April 17, 2007 04:15:12 pm:

Ken - in the case of the NY Times, I think this is actually an essential tactic to get the news out there. The average person isn't going to CNN.com, Wikipedia, Digg or even Google News to research these events - when people want to know about their world, the first resource they turn to is the homepage of Google.

As such, a paid campaign is a valuable tool to quickly ensure that you're helping those interested parties find the latest news.

Is there economic incentive to doing so? Sure. But these companies are in the business of reporting on the news. Organic search isn't an option for a breaking story - a smart, quickly executed paid search campaign can be a valuable resource to users.

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By Jim | Palm Beach Gard, FL April 17, 2007 04:26:27 pm:

This is one of the most tasteless, pandering efforts I have ever seen. Has the media lost it's mind?

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By cfilm | Calgary, AB April 17, 2007 04:47:18 pm:

Right, incredibly tacky and also tasteless. I googled the shooter's name and I am relieved that the results don't have any sponsors on it (yet?).

May be a company should really think hard about how will they be branded before they purchase key words.

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By cfilm | Calgary, AB April 17, 2007 04:55:36 pm:

I disagree with Anthony. I think for latest news events, people will go those sites you mentioned first.

A paid campaign to draw readers to one's site for a tragic event can appear to be tacky and tasteless. I think it is a dangerous game to play. Of course, I may be totally wrong and the general public may not be media savvy enough to know or care.

Just my 2 cents.

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By kbzimm | New York, NY April 17, 2007 05:17:59 pm:

If you think that's bad, check out some of the contextual ads running alongside the developing story in CNN. Here's a pretty good one from Lands End (note the text!):

http://searchviews.com/archives/2007/04/virginia_tech_shootings.php

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By amy | New York, NY April 18, 2007 03:47:23 pm:

I agree with Anthony. The significant lag time between news breaking and Google indexing an associated story is frustrating to people searching for information. If publishers are willing to sponsor a link to timely and relevant content, why is that more tacky than an organic link posted hours or days later?

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