Trademark Triggers You Will Go On My First Whistle!
5 Comments May 6, 2008 / Posted in Affiliate Marketing, SEODespite the promise of a switch off of trademark triggers on May 5th, Google let everyone enjoy the bank holiday (and bask in the glow of Southampton’s last day survival) before unleashing it’s new brand name bidding free for all. Already you can find the likes of Comet appearing on a search for Currys, eBuyer popping up on a search for Comet, Freemans appearing for ‘Next’ and there’s even a couple of sites taking advantage of our own trademark.
What will the impact be? From a trademark owner point of view we’ll have to wait and see if traffic is effected, however those using our trademark are duly noted.
From a user point of view, personally I find it a little bit distracting and irrelevant. If I want to go to Comet, and search for Comet, I want to see Comet… not Pearl Strings or Shopzilla links.
Users could well become confused or perhaps even annoyed by this decision - meaning that their focus will turn to the white space and the organic search results, which ultimately will be more relevant to them.
I don’t think it’s started fully yet, meaning what we are seeing just now may very well be the early adopters. Indeed I still to bid on your brand name, will get the adverts sorted shortly LOL only joking mate however I do wonder if I “competitions” as a keyword will soon have Google broad matching different sites who do competitions? Will have to keep an eye on that, if they do just give me a shout and I will stick it in a negative keyword as I am not a fan of leaching off other peoples brands, however I know many others are not of that opinion.
Its stared.. I have 2 people doing to my site… ALL where baned before today… I would not mined but one has followed our exact business model! I’m not sure if we can fight it…. I think it will be a blow of our business and makes me sick as we spend 1000’s with the big G, Good job our web site is number one under the same trade mark
I think the main thing is to give it a few days to settle in.. there will be thousands of keywords going live without users realising about it.. ones that got disabled years ago due to TM forms going into google.. .. why would they pause the keywords they can’t show for anyway !?
so rather than wield a big stick it’s maybe wisest to give a nudge by email or ring and say.. do you realise you are bidding on our trademark etc… if so then ok no problemo just slip the poker hat on and say we’ll see you and raise you as we’ll bid you yours too then..
An angry email of accusing finger (whilst warranted in 90% of cases) will only get some people’s backs up.. so let’s all play nice.. then bid the crap out of the ones that wont
am sure the usual low brow affiliates are having a field day today.. but it also seems the google algo needs tweaking for sure as the ad landscape is full of tons of irrelevant chaff on many brands
Behind that face Shane is a smart guy.
Doug
Good advice Shane, but extra care with language is advised.
I’ve seen many instances where someone said (politely) “do you realise you are bidding on our trademark” and got into a whole world of trouble… apparently they should have said “do you realise you are APPEARING on our trademark”.