Professional Search Engine Optimization and SEO Marketing Firm

Home

Package Deals

Optimization

Submission

Pay-Per-Click

Paid Inclusion

Conversion

Free Tools

Blog

Blog Sponsors:

Welcome to the ineedhits Search Engine Marketing blog, where we share the latest search engine and online marketing news, releases, industry trends and great DIY tips and advice.

We encourage you to get involved in our blog community - so share your opinions and experiences by leaving comments on our posts.

If you're looking for help with promoting your website - check out our range of affordable search engine marketing services.

Tuesday, May 29

Google & Dell Commit Evil Search Sin?

Around this time last year, Google and Dell entered into a partnership that would see Google's web and desktop software preinstalled on Dell machines. A year on, Dell users are getting irritated that their machines are pushing them to error pages loaded with Google Ads, rather than editorial listings.

To get a quick background of the issue, let's look back to 2006, when Google CEO Eric Schmidt had this to say about the deal:

"The real reason we do this is for users. People turn the Dell machine on, and everything is integrated right there. (This deal) is a turnkey solution for search."

Another feature that Google 'integrated' into these machines was a "Browser Address Error Redirector" that sends those using Dell computers and trying to reach non-existent web sites to a Google page loaded with Ads.

For example, say you were trying to enter www.google.com and you accidentally left the 'm' of the '.com'. You would get redirected to a custom error page that looks like this.

This screenshot shows the page as it looks on my monitor. See how the top half is loaded with sponsored links and actual web search results only feature below the fold. Surely if Google "did this for the users" as Schmidt said - the organic web search results would feature first on this page.

To me, this feature seems to clearly destroy the user experience, instead trying to cash in on typo's and misspelling. After all, the financial details of the Google / Dell deal included shared revenue from search advertising fees - making this feature profitable for both companies.

Have Dell & Google committed an evil search sin? I'll leave this for you to decide.

Labels: Google

2 Comments

At 3:14 PM, rs6471 said...: I am very surprised that this is the first time that you encountered this. I bought a cheap ass computer from wal-mart just to mess around on the web and mainly a music holding doc. but my browser does the same thing and it is an e-machine computer. it really is quite annoying though. sometimes my web pages load up and then after about twenty seconds it flips to that page also. it doesn't happen very often but the fact that it does still pisses me off
At 6:28 PM, Bob M. said...: I would have no problem with this if Dell/Goggle gave the user the option to use this 'service', rather than 'telling' me what I need/want.

Bob

Our Newsletter

Subscribe!

Atom Site Feed

Free Tools

Recent Posts:

Search Engine Marketing Blog Homepage

Contributors

Warren Duff
Rene LeMerle
Matthew Elshaw
Courtney Mills


	Recommended

7 Day Google Inclusion
Get listed in Google in 7 days - guaranteed! Only $24.99/mth

Buy Now

More ...

Guaranteed Top 10 Listing
Guaranteed top 10 listing in 250+ search engines - Just $9.99/month

Buy Now

More ...

Google & Yahoo! Advertising
Instant exposure and quality website traffic from Google & Yahoo! sponsored advertising. Increase your traffic from only $99 per month.

Buy Now

More ...

www.gooruze.com

Archives:

May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008

Google & Dell Commit Evil Search Sin?

Post a Comment