BP pays for Oil Spill!

The wonders of the new Internet.

BP, the very company that is responsible for the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has purchased the term oil spill on various search engines. As a result, users who search for the term oil spill will now be able to see the official website of BP at the top, along with the message "see how BP is helping".

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Broadcast/bp-buys-search-engine-phrases-redirecting-users/story?id=10835618

A sample of the web result on Google is provided here.

Notice the yellow highlighted box at the top. This is what BP has paid for.

This action by BP clearly demonstrates the importance of the Internet, and how vital it has become in determining the success or failure of a brand. Given the significant negative publicity that the company has generated as a result of this environmental disaster, and the fact that users now have access to information from a variety of different sources such as blogs, social networks and instantly updated news articles, all ripe with opinions of its creators that BP might, or might not find desirable, BP has taken this action to mitigate the negative impacts. So rather than be directed to sources of information that might be less flattering for BP, the company purchased the term to ensure that at least the first search result was their own website, giving users the opportunity to visit their homepage and learn about their perspective on the issue and what they are doing to resolve the crisis.

This news also demonstrates the long tail concept that Google has used to its advantage. Typically, a search term such as Oil Spill would not be heavily demanded, especially since these events are few and far between. However, the long tail concept dictates that at a given point in time, there might be enough users out there that would want to purchase such rare keywords that are not heavily demanded, but can generate enough usage in total to even eclipse the revenue generated through more popular search terms that typically go for a lot more per click.