Keyword Ownership: What It Is and Where It's Headed?
Have you ever got one of those silly emails that
offers to let you own a keyword? Silly question. How many such emails
do you get every day?
A number of such services regularly email me offering
keyword ownership of premium keywords for $300/year. They say that
anyone can type the keyword I bought in the address bar of Internet
explorer, instead of typing in a URL, and they will be sent directly
to my site. In total it seems that there are about 2% of Internet
users worldwide who have enabled one type or another of this system,
spread out between a few competitive services.
Data shows that between 4% and 7% of search queries
are performed by entering something in the address bar. By default
for IE users, these searches are automatically routed through to
MSN search. Many of us however have installed so much software over
time, and unknowingly, some of this software has re-routed these
search queries to other search portals, such as iGetNet, or others.
This often happens if you've installed any file sharing software.
We have all heard / read about how many extra 'features' come with
programs like Kazaa. This means that your default search from the
address bar may no longer be MSN, and may have been rerouted elsewhere,
but the basic principle still applies. Of the queries that are actually
run from an address bar, at least half of them are unintentionally
instigated by people mistyping the desired URL. This means that
between 2% and 4% of Internet users actually search via their address
bar.
So how exactly do these address bars work? There
are many of these companies offering this kind of service, with
each one of them selling the very same keywords to different and
sometimes competing companies. To make things worse, the keywords
you might buy will only work with the issuing companys proprietary
address bar plug-in. Then, to actually offer search capabilities
from the address bar, each of these service providers needs to get
individual Internet users to download and install their plug-in,
and remember to run searches from the address bar.
How effective can a marketing strategy of this
nature be when the various tools are not interchangeable, there
are numerous competitors selling the same key words to different
companies, and you are targeting only a small fraction of Internet
users? If your ad is being displayed because its similar to the
search query, are you paying for irrelevant results? This can happen;
If there is not a perfect match to a search query, the next closest
match may be displayed.
Competing with these companies is any search engine that offers
its own toolbar. You can download a toolbar from any number of engines,
and run searches on any key word or phrase quickly and easily. You
then get the search engines selection of closest matches, from all
the web sites they have indexed. They offer more than just one choice,
and dont cost anything
Who Started This?
Started in 1998, Realnames was the first company that tied searching
via the address bar to a web browser. At the time, it was touted
as a value added solution for businesses around the world who were
attempting to get their products found quickly, but didn't want
customers to have to wade through a sea of Web addresses to reach
their destination.
In part, it was deemed necessary because so few
web site operators were search engine savvy, and fewer still knew
anything about search engine optimization and promotion. What the
Realnames solution did was allow a web site operator to buy a keyword,
and then when any user of Internet Explorer would type that keyword
into the IE address toolbar, they would get directed to the web
site that owned the keyword.
The company hoped to profit from businesses which
wanted to reach Internet users who would type keywords into their
browsers address bar instead of remembering the url, or going through
a standard search interface.
Unfortunately for the company, the service was
entirely dependent on Microsoft; and when Microsoft stopped supporting
the technology in May 2002, the company was forced to close. The
reason it was so totally dependent was simple; Unlike the new companies
on the market today, Realnames did not depend on an end user downloading
and installing a plugin, instead it was essentially integrated into
Internet Explorer by Microsoft. Therefore everyone who used IE automatically
had the plugin.
The Legal Question
Each of the companies offering these services has a policy designed
to ensure that a web site only buys keywords related to their content,
and their review process is designed to keep cybersquatters from
hijacking popular names and products. Unfortunately, there is no
way to guarantee that any one of these keyword ownership services
adheres to any naming standard, or even ensures that any purchaser
has the legal right to any of the terms they are buying. This means
that the rights to copyrighted material like "Pepsi" or
generic words like "business" could end up in the hands
of the first buyer. While Pepsi is a well known brand name, there
are millions of copyrighted and trademark protected terms, covered
in multiple jurisdictions. It would not be cost effective or practical
for these services to police copyright and trademark infringement.
In the summer of 1999, the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit, denied Playboy's request for an injunction
barring a search engine from selling advertising based on the terms
playboyand playmate. In the precedent setting ruling regarding keyword
advertising, Judge Stotler of the United States District Court in
Santa, Ana, California, dismissed a lawsuit brought by Playboy Enterprises
against the search engine Excite, Inc. and Netscape. The ruling
limited the online rights of trademark holders, as it recognized
that a trademark may be used without authorization by search engines
in advertising sales practices.
Playboy claimed that the search engines were displaying
paid banner ads from pornographic web sites whenever "playboy"
or "playmate" were used as a search term. As the owner
of the trademarks for both terms, Playboy argued that the use of
its trademarks for a third party sales scheme was trademark infringement
and branding dilution.
In the ruling dismissing Playboy's case, the Judge
found that Excite had not used the trademarks "playboy"
and "playmate" in an unlawful manner. This was because
Excite had not used the trademarked words to identify Excites own
goods or services and therefore trademark infringement laws did
not apply. It was further determined that even if there was trademark
usage, there was no infringement because there was no evidence that
consumers confused Playboy products with the services of Excite
or Netscape.
What about within Meta Tags?
Is it illegal to use trademarked terms in your meta tags? Sometimes.
The problem occurs with how and why you are using the terms. Web
sites that use the tags in a deceptive manner have lost legal battles.
However, legitimate reasons to use the terms have resulted in successful
defenses.
In a case involving Playboy, the firm was able
to prove trademark infringement, based on use of their trademark
in meta tags, url and content on the web site. The case was filed
by the firm against web site operators for stuffing their web pages
with the words Playboy and Playmate hundreds of times. Furthermore,
the defendants were also using the terms Playboy and Playmate in
the site names, URLs, and slogans. In this case the Judge ruled
for Playboy, as there was a clear case of trademark infringement.
In the separate case, Playboy vs. Terri Welles,
the court refused Playboy's request. The reason was simple. Terri
Welles was Playboy's 1981 Playmate of the Year. She had used the
terms "Playmate" and "Playboy" on her web pages
and within her meta tags, and the Court felt she had a legitimate
right to use them to accurately describe herself, and to ensure
that the search engines could catalog her web site properly within
their databases. Playboy's appeal was dismissed on Feb. 1, 2002.
In Summary
It is clear that if you have a legitimate reason to use a trademarked
word or phrase in your web site you can. You may also rent their
ownership from one of the keyword ownership companies. Be careful,
though, it is possible that may get sued.
Does the technology work? Yes, but only for some
of the approximately 3% of Internet users worldwide who have installed
any one of a variety of competing plugins that enable this type
of searching. I stress a fraction of the 3%, as you would need to
buy the keywords from each individual vendor to ensure reaching
all 2%.
Taken in part from The Affiliate Training Centre
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