Inadvertent Marketing by Google

I discovered a few minutes ago that Google does a little inadvertent marketing.

I accidentally searched for "winftp" when what I really wanted was "wsftp".  Lo and behold, Google helpfully pointed out my error.
  <quote>Did you mean: wsftp</quote>
Thanks, Google!

But wait!  There *is* a product called WinFTP.  And you cannot find it at www.winftp.com.  So what will most people do?  Google for it.  And Google will helpfully tell them that they have searched for the wrong brand and should be looking at WS-FTP, instead.

Okay, maybe its not that dramatic, but I wonder how many little-known, similarly named products earn a nudge from Google to their competitors...

Kinda discourages piggybacking on a popular brand (i.e. - "PRolex" watches, etc.).


Just a thought.

Russell Thackston
Friday, May 14, 2004

That's a fascinating catch, Russell. Thanks.

Dennis Atkins
Friday, May 14, 2004

I love that feature; it is very helpful.  Piggybacking on a popular brand is lame anyway.  Google is promoting originality!

sup
Friday, May 14, 2004

google actually looks for what you typed, and returns the answers. So you will always get to where you wanted if there is a link to it, and you typed the name correclty.

Stephen Jones
Friday, May 14, 2004

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