BP Buys "Oil Spill" Search Term

technology_dude found an unsurprising but amusing little story that BP is buying keywords on Google and Yahoo for things like "Oil Spill" to help spin some damage control. I guess if you can't plug your spill, the least you can do is try to clog the flow of information.

In the US.

[leuk_he]

If i google "oil spill" here (Netherlands) it does not show sponsered links.

I get 2 sponsored links right now

[Rockoon]

One is to:

www.BP.com/OilSpillNews [bp.com] "Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill Learn More about How BP is Helping."

The other is:

Tar Ball Burner(tm) [sandman.com] "Collect free tar balls from beaches and turn them into unleaded gas!"

Please slashdot both of them.

Re:In the US.

[Anonymous Coward]

here in IL I googled "oil spill" and the two sponsored links were:
      1.
            BP
            www.BP.com/OilSpillNews Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill Learn More about How BP is Helping.
      2.
            Latest Oil Spill Update
            google.com/crisisresponse/oilspill Watch live video of the oil spill cleanup effort.

copy/pasted without editing from google search.

The BP link has a ton of video links, including direct links to the ROV video feed.

If nothing else, this will be the best documented screwup ever.

Clog the flow of information?

[mea37]

Relax, dude, I'm pretty sure we can all find plenty of things to blame BP for without pretending that buying keyword impressions is somehow harmful.

Go google "oil spill". Sure enough, the top sponsored link will be the BP oil spill site. The other sponsored link will be... yet another partison point of view from someone who was willing to pay to get a message out. That's what sponsored links are.

Right below them - right where they always are - you still find the real search results. How that squares with the flow of information being "clogged" is beyond me.

I'd find more to complain about if BP wasn't trying to present a strong media presence. You know, saying "I'd like my life back" or something like that.

Re:Sign Sign Everywhere a Sign

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Hey, be fair! They didn't leave their pumps unattended. 11 of the attendees died.

Re:Who Cares

[delinear]

You do realise that they've bought an ad space, they're not paying to bury all the other organic search results. It's one ad that appears in the clearly marked sponsored area and links to a page that gives some information about how they're trying (and failing) to do anything, with some webcams and a pitiful "have you got any ideas to help?" request. It's hardly preventing people finding the information they want, any more than Dulux are trying to destroy our cultural heritage by preventing us accessing information on the great artists because they show an ad when I search for "painting".

Re:Who Cares

[aicrules]

While it may be good PR for them to have what they have on the Oil Spill link, it actually IS a very helpful link versus the rest of the results. Have you actually looked at what they have on that page? While the highlighted area is basically to let people know what they are doing, there is a bunch of very useful information and links also on that page. Important phone numbers, links to the four State response websites, ROV footage...stuff that they don't HAVE to put on a "Damage Control" link. They may only have done it because that was the only way to have any hope of repairing their image once this is over, but it's a better source of information that most of the other links you'll find in the results. AND it's in the sponsored link section, clearly pointing out that it's not just a run of the mill search result.

Re:I honestly don't blame them

[MightyMartian]

Ah yes, the ol' "the media is evil vs. the just-a-little-evil-company/politician/organization".

Whatever the media has been doing, it's BP whose spinning is making things worse. They lied about the amount of oil leaking. They tried to deny there were oil plumes, basically calling a number of experts alarmists. They've bullshitted about the amount of aid they've been providing, the amount of work they've been doing on the cleanup.

BP isn't just "not perfect", it's a pack of self-serving liars who, on top of everything else, are too fucking stupid to realize that every line of bullshit they try to foist on the public gets them in even more trouble.

The truth may not set you free, but sometimes it at least can mitigate the damage. If they had said three or four weeks ago "we could be leaking up to 20,000 barrels a day", yes, they would have gone a lot of bad press, but at least the bad press wouldn't have involved "you're lying bastards". The same with the oil plumes.

The people that caused this disaster were BP. The people who are creating a fair amount of the bad PR is BP. As the old saying goes, "blaming the press is like a captain blaming the sea".

Re:have they bought "Beyond Pitiful" yet?

[rhsanborn]

The problem is, apparently, that the well is incredibly unstable. They had a list of other ideas in the event that their "top kill" method didn't work. They didn't even try them because they were seeing pressure numbers and other signs that the well was unstable. They are, reportedly, afraid that if they try to stop the flow completely at the blowout preventer that the pressure will destroy the blowout preventer and the well creating a huge, uncontrolled leak that is coming out of many more places and at a higher volume than is currently coming out of that riser pipe.

Re:Can't Even Boycott the Bastards

[magarity]

Tell your senator that you want more transportation options besides automobiles
 
Yes, because there aren't enough empty buses and light rail trains rumbling around town.

Re:Surprisingly Competant for an Evil Villain

[AGMW]

I heard on NPR that some people looking to investigate beaches were turned away by policeman and when they asked the policemen who was paying them to do that the policeman said they were off duty police officers employed by BP. I don't know if that's true ...

... but I'm going to spread the rumour anyway because it shows BP in a bad light and BP are the current people we love to hate.

A friend of mine said BP wanted to use mashed up baby dolphins to try and plug the leak, but I don't know if it's true ...

Re:It may seem egregious and offensive

[blind biker]

They also have live feeds from the ROVs which seems pretty cool

They have those feeds because the government forced them to!. BP wasn't going to provide those feeds, it took an explicit order by the US government to achieve this "kindness".

Re:have they bought "Beyond Pitiful" yet?

[AndersOSU]

People reading newspapers don't know what methyl hydrates and clathrates are. Ice is a reasonable description for something that is liquid under STP, but solid at the bottom of the ocean.