DKSG

If you use Google to search for things like “browser”, you won’t see Chrome download page in the first few pages. That is because Google is penalizing Chrome for using paid sponsored post. This is against Google’s guidelines against paid links.

It appears that Google Chrome team has engaged a company called Essence Digital which uses a company called Unruly to implement the campaign. According to Essence Digital, Google never approved a sponsored-post campaign. They only agreed to buy online video ads. It is Unruly that encouraged bloggers to create what appeared to be paid posts. But Unruly claims that they never require bloggers to link to back to advertiser’s site because they are in the business of video advertising not search engine marketing.

Oh well. It is kinda stupid for the Chrome team to do this campaign. They could have use PR to get influential bloggers and journalist to cover stories about them. It will be much more effective than sponsored post. And why the Google Chrome team uses Essence Digital and Unruly instead of Google’s own Video Ads network?

But kudos to Google for taking action against their own division. Google has since manually changed Chrome’s pagerank to 0 for at least 60 days. That’s the lowest possible pagerank score. It is still unsure how this will affect Chrome’s market share for the next few months. Hope it doesn’t affect much. I love Google Chrome. I’ve switched completely to Chrome both at home and office. Still feel that it is the best browser around.

I think it is going to be awkward when the Chrome team bumps into the Search team at the cafeteria.