Searching for the word 'MCHost' on Google.com:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=mchost

The little green box on the right side


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Does advertising get anything more tasteless than this? Writing 'i am better than my competitor' in public ads? Watch out, your hosting company could be next :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Kiwi
Snip

I would see it as a complement :D

Thats pretty bad really - a quick complaint to Google by MCHost would get that ad removed I am sure

Found the same thing recently:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=plesk

Originally posted by Editor
Found the same thing recently:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=plesk

Someone should give them a lesson on business ethics. And a lesson on English...

"Better then Plesk..."


Vito

Who is going to do a search for "MChost" anyway? Wouldn't you automatically know it's mchost.com?

I don't know if this should be a shock to anyone. "Our brand is better than this other brand"-type advertising has been around forever.

That is soooooooo lame. :emlaugh:

Oddly though Marc, had you never mentioned them I'd have never heard of them. Nice bit of free advertising for them there :)

Greg Moore

Not quite the same thing, but guess who the sponsored link is at the top of the page when you do a search on "hsphere" in google?


Vito

ahaha... I think it's an effective advertising method, just not moral. How many of you actually clicked to find out their site after the little ad?

That kind of advertising hasn't been allowed in the UK, although it's common in the US. There used to be adverts, typically for washing powders and the like, saying "we compared our product to Brand X, and found...". There's a story, which may be just that, that a manufacurer then came out and actually called their product Brand X and made a killing, thanks to the free, if seemingly negative, advertising from the other advertisers, as everyone had seen brand X on the tellie :)

Originally posted by vito
Not quite the same thing, but guess who the sponsored link is at the top of the page when you do a search on "hsphere" in google?

Tricky aren't they :)

Which is why it's pointless spending even $10 let alone a few thousand on any search engines. We ran with Google once. Waste of time. We have run some banners more recently...the hit registers and takes the visitor straight to some casino.

The best thing about word of mouth, is it's (usually) not for sale. :)

Gary

Wow. This kind of advertising is more prevalent than I thought. Do a google search on "cuteftp tutorial"

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=cuteftp+tutorial

Notice the AdWords ad...


Vito

Iinet is first :angry:

Kiwi - Did you contact Google to take it down because it's gone now.

I would have to question the fact that Google would accept the order in the first place. Not sure how those things go it's wrong.

I also have a question for Kiwi - how many hours per week do you spend hunting this type of stuff down? I know people have made comments about you being kind of anal about finding this type of stuff but I do understand it from your point of view. You worked hard to build your business and you don't want anyone stealing your design or using your business name to further their own business. If you take an aggressive stand on this type of behavior, perhaps you can control it.

I know atleast once a month I get am email from either Macromedia or Microsoft saying a client is either is reporting inaccurate news or has a file they shouldn't. They are protecting their interests, and I think an efficiently run business owner willl do this.

The one thing that concerns me about having resellers is that most times they ask you if they can use parts of your site for their own (text I am speaking of). If they are lucky and are successful, they move on - and they take their site with them...which is actually part of your site. Or some resellers have multiple reseller plans and again, they may use part of your site with their other entity. In that aspect alone, if you host resellers you need to be sharp.

I don't think google will take down the ads since
Google is doing the same thing.
A search on overture come up with an google ad word links on top.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=overture

Originally posted by Myacen
Iinet is first :angry:

Geez, there has got to be something seriously wrong with Google's Page Rank system. How does Iinet beat out cuteftp.com?? They both have a PR of 4. Cuteftp.com only has a PR of 4 on cuteftp product search??

I guess when people say they have a hard time figuring out Google's algorithms, they're not kidding...

Vito

Kiwi - Did you contact Google to take it down because it's gone now.

It's still there for me.

I also doubt Google will take it down-- After all, there is no violation.

Geez, there has got to be something seriously wrong with Google's Page Rank system. How does Iinet beat out cuteftp.com?? They both have a PR of 4. Cuteftp.com only has a PR of 4 on cuteftp product search??

What are you using to calculate the PR?

This is quite common with google. I do sort of have to echo Greg's comment on your post only giving them additional free advertising. Do I personally find this type of advertising tasteful? No. However, it happens and I just let it go. Much like the web site rip-offs. Although, for them, there is software to prevent that from happening.

Originally posted by progex


What are you using to calculate the PR?

http://toolbar.google.com/


Vito

I see it's still there. I was not at my normal computer where I have Google preferences set up. Once I enabled the preferences, it came right up.

Originally posted by vito
Wow. This kind of advertising is more prevalent than I thought.

I don't see that putting up an adwords item saying that an ftp product is faster than something else is necessarily bad. The adWords team also review adverts, and will withdraw it if it doesn't meet their guidelines.

It's not attacking the named product, but just saying that you're alegedly faster. If you are then that's potentially doing the person visiting the link a favour. Saying that they're the 'fastest' or 'premiere' tool might be less contentious though, and fastest doesn't necessarily mean better.

We often get testimonials to say that we're better than our main competitor, and some of those go on our site, but being British, and as a token gesture, I take out the name of the competitor. I do feel that we owe it to our potential customers and that it's the right thing to do to provide them with testimonials of peoples impressions, even if those comments draw comparisons with other peoples products.

Actually, what I'm referring to more is riding the coat-tails of the popularity of a competitor. In other words, you're using the opportunity of someone's search for a competitor to promote your site.

Vito

Actually, what I'm referring to more is riding the coat-tails of the popularity of a competitor. In other words, you're using the opportunity of someone's search for a competitor to promote your site.

Fair point. I'd feel uneasy about that too and wouldn't do it personally, although the advertiser rightly wants to target people who are looking, in this case, for ftp products. If when everyone thinks of ftp they think 'yukon ftp', then having 'yukon ftp' as one of the search phrases seems fair game if you're someone trying to break into the market, along with 'best ftp client', 'free ftp client' etc.

Exactly. I understand the motivation and logic behind it. But like you, I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel using those methods in my marketing plan.

Vito

uncreative? Seems fairly creative to me.

Except, I don't know who would be searching for the term mchost.

Oh wait . . . . that would be kiwi. :D

Alright, I suppose in that sense, it's uncreative.

Unless you visited their site. Or got them more exposure somehow.

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
uncreative? Seems fairly creative to me.

Except, I don't know who would be searching for the term mchost.

Oh wait . . . . that would be kiwi. :D

Alright, I suppose in that sense, it's uncreative.

Unless you visited their site. Or got them more exposure somehow.

:emlaugh: :emlaugh: :emlaugh:

I don't think it's any less tasteful than attempting to secure trademarks on common industry terms....they must have just figured it was fair game...

Originally posted by iWebbers.com
I don't think google will take down the ads since
Google is doing the same thing.
A search on overture come up with an google ad word links on top.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=overture

That is hilarious :bawling: :D

This is sort of like that kid who has thousands of domain names that were common misspellings of popular domain names. He was making close to a million a year redirecting folks to his porn sites. :rolleyes: :eek:

Originally posted by lightnin
I don't think it's any less tasteful than attempting to secure trademarks on common industry terms....they must have just figured it was fair game...
I just think it's cheesy. It's hard to imagine McDonalds advertising on Burger King search results pages... or Coke advertising on Pepsi pages. But hey, if it works, who am I to judge?


Vito

I just found this out:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=ensim

They're also doing the same to Ensim. So you're not the only one. :stickout:

Originally posted by vito

I just think it's cheesy. It's hard to imagine McDonalds advertising on Burger King search results pages... or Coke advertising on Pepsi pages. But hey, if it works, who am I to judge?


Vito

Oh no, I agree totally. Just can't resist the chance to mention kiwi's silly trademarking habits...

LOL!...

I know this is from a personal sense for me unethical.

But is this any different from Pepsi creating an entire commercial to disrespect Coke?

How many times have you seen an ad for Pepsi insulting Coke to make themselves look better

This is old school advertising...

Just find it interesting how shocked and appalled everyone is, but when performed by a multi billion dollar company, there's no surprise..

Im in no way condoning this conduct, but take into account that this is being done everyday outside of the hosting industry...

Are we immune?

~e

Originally posted by lightnin
I don't think it's any less tasteful than attempting to secure trademarks on common industry terms....they must have just figured it was fair game...

LOL. Thanks for the post. :)

Originally posted by UmBillyCord


LOL. I was reading through this thread and about to make a similar comment. Thanks for the post. :)

:D

Originally posted by Finalz
ahaha... I think it's an effective advertising method, just not moral. How many of you actually clicked to find out their site after the little ad?

And wasted their money...:emlaugh:

Originally posted by essene
But is this any different from Pepsi creating an entire commercial to disrespect Coke?

How many times have you seen an ad for Pepsi insulting Coke to make themselves look better

Just find it interesting how shocked and appalled everyone is, but when performed by a multi billion dollar company, there's no surprise..

Personally, I'm not shocked or appalled by it, I just find it a cheesy way to get exposure.

You're absolutely correct, though. It happens every day. Ads poke fun at their competitors all the time. I saw an ad on TV recently for Crest White Strips where you stick this tape on your teeth to whiten them. They were poking fun at a competitor where you have to paint a liquid on your teeth and stand there for 60 seconds without closing your mouth so that it can dry onto your teeth. I found the ad funny. It worked for me. It was an effective ad.

But I'm talking about using a competitor's popularity to get exposure. It's like John Doe's Book Store lacing his meta tags with "amazon" so that he shows up in searches for books.

I'm not saying they shouldn't do it. I'm just saying it's cheesy, and they'd be wasting their ad dollars in my case because I wouldn't click on their link. But that's just me... :)

Vito

It's clear that they are lying. They aren't any better then MCHost, in fact, they are just like MCHost. For example: their FAQ is nearly complete and will be availabe here soon! Just like MCHost's FAQ.

(this is meant to be funny)

Infomersial for different workout tools do exactly that too.

This machine "so-and-so" is much better that the machines "this-and-that", "so-good" and "that-fine" and they show people using them :)

Actually, if you don't click on their link, they haven't wasted any advertising dollars, because that is a pay-per-click advertising program. If you ever don't like one of those ads, you can make them pay some money by clicking on the link.

Originally posted by trif
Actually, if you don't click on their link, they haven't wasted any advertising dollars, because that is a pay-per-click advertising program. If you ever don't like one of those ads, you can make them pay some money by clicking on the link.

Well, that would be spiteful. I wouldn't do that. And you're right, the Google AdWords ad on the right is on a per click basis. But I believe the Sponsored Link at the top of the page is per impression.

Vito

Originally posted by vito
Geez, there has got to be something seriously wrong with Google's Page Rank system. How does Iinet beat out cuteftp.com?? They both have a PR of 4. Cuteftp.com only has a PR of 4 on cuteftp product search??

I guess when people say they have a hard time figuring out Google's algorithms, they're not kidding...This is a little off topic to the thread, but there's nothing hard to figure out there.

First, PageRank is calculated for each individual page based on the links pointing to that page. That is, it's indicative of a misunderstanding to say "Cuteftp.com only has a PR of 4 on cuteftp product search..." because a page's PR has nothing to do with the query you used before seeing that page. You can simply type the page url into the address bar and you'll see a PageRank on the toolbar. That should make it clear that it's independant of any Google query.

Further, the PR indicated on the toolbar is an approximation, rounded down to the nearest whole number. Since PR is on a logarithmic scale, there can be a substantial difference in real PageRank between two sites for which it might be displayed identically. It's possible, for example, that the first page here has a PR of over 4.9 and the second is approximately 4.001.

More importantly, PR is only one factor in the process of ranking pages for a given query. In this case, the first page returned has the search phrase, "cuteftp tutorial," prominently and effectively placed, begining with both the page title and in bold text at the top. The second page, at cuteftp.com, doesn't even contain the word "tutorial" anywhere.

So I'd say Google's algorithms can't be faulted for not returning that page as the number one listing; and the results of this query look pretty close to what they should be.

Cool. Thanks, JayC. I learned something today. Thanks for the quick lesson. :)

Vito