Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Look What Happens When You Google "Oil Spill"

Orange border added for highlighting purposes.
"Learn more about how BP is helping."


Link to June 8 TIMESONLINE article, "BP 'manipulating search results' on Google following oil spill".

Excerpt: The company is purchasing terms such as “oil spill”, “Deepwater Horizon” and “Gulf of Mexico”, so that when a user types these words into the search engines, the results prominently feature a “sponsored link” to BP’s official page on its response to the spill.

Critics have described BP’s move as unethical. Maureen Mackey, a writer on the Fiscal Times, an online news site, said: “What it effectively does is that it bumps down other legitimate news and opinion pieces that are addressing the spill... and \[BP are\] paying big money for that.”

The criticism comes as President Obama expressed unease at the amount of money the company was spending to counter the negative attention the company has received following the oil spill
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And on YouTube, this is what you get with a "BP" or "oil spill" search.  But not "deepwater horizon".
It's a full-court press on the PR front, people.

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