Google Sells Out. (Hutton Inquiry)

[reprehensor]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/bbc/story/0,7521,1130050,00.html

"Just 48 hours before Lord Hutton delivers his verdict on the controversy surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, the BBC has begun an advertising experiment that involves buying up all internet search terms relating to the inquiry.

Despite being one of the main players in the drama, anyone searching for "Hutton inquiry" or "Hutton report" on the UK's most popular search engine Google is automatically directed to a paid-for link to BBC Online's own news coverage of the inquiry.

No other news broadcaster or any newspaper has paid Google for this facility, leaving the corporation's move even more conspicuous.

As one of the chief "interested parties" in the Hutton inquiry into the apparent suicide of Dr Kelly, the move will strike many as worthy of comment, not least because the BBC's online news pages will not be the most obvious place to go for the most comprehensive coverage, which is bound to include painful criticism of the corporation."

More at link.

[Fovea]

1. Wow, the real news

is that the BBC must have been bought from the British govt overnight by rupert murdoch. That's the kind of crap he would pull.

[seventhson]

2. All the news the corporations can buy online now!

yhat is extremely f*cked up.

I am boycotting google.

Thanks for the info.

[KoKo]

3. How does one boycott Google? Do you have access to any other

Search Engines which are as good as Google? ;-)'s Google is supposedly going to be bought out, btw. I don't think we will have access anymore if that occurs.

I've actually wondered how long it would take the Repugs to do something
to shut it down, so it's not surprising in an election year they get a buyer.

[reprehensor]

7. Altavista.

Has come a long way, baby.

[Sparky McGruff]

5. I'm not sure Google is doing anything different...

They always have the automoatically generated "most relevant" links and news at the top. That's why when you google "miserable failure" you get George W.'s resume.

You may not like what it feels is most relevant (compiled by how many pages link to the page and the site it's hosted on), but it usually works pretty well. They haven't deleted any info on their site, from what I can tell.

[Goldom]

4. Did any of you -try- it?

Cause it's... well... not true. I just tested it, and nope, went right to normal search results page. Now, if I had clicked the feeling lucky button, it would have gone right to the most linked result, but as we all know that's rarely meaningful.

[Philostopher]

6. You are absolutely correct, Goldom

Unless they have a way of IP routing that can read regions, and they know you and I aren't in the UK (I assume you aren't -- I'm not), this isn't true. I'm willing to allow that perhaps they do have some way of IP routing or tracking by region, but that's the only way this story has any legs, unless it was temporary for Monday. Maybe it was, I don't know.

[reprehensor]

8. Perhaps the desired effect...

Will not take place until tomorrow, when the report is released. If it's not true, then the Guardian will have to eat its shoe, just like Tucker Carlson.