• Search Engine Land
  • Sections
    • SEO
    • SEM
    • Local
    • Retail
    • Google
    • Bing
    • Social
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Resources
  • Live
  • More
  • Events
  • SUBSCRIBE

Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Resources
  • More
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Mobile

Google’s Home Page Promotes Motorola / Verizon Droid Phone

Google really wants you to buy a Motorola Droid, the hot new phone that just hit stores today. In fact, Google is so enamored that it’s advertising the Droid on its homepage: “The Droid is on sale now. Learn more.” Clicking the “learn more” link leads to this “mobile partners” page that touts the Google […]

Matt McGee on November 6, 2009 at 2:21 pm
  • More
google-droid-ad

Google really wants you to buy a Motorola Droid, the hot new phone that just hit stores today. In fact, Google is so enamored that it’s advertising the Droid on its homepage: “The Droid is on sale now. Learn more.”

Clicking the “learn more” link leads to this “mobile partners” page that touts the Google search capabilities available on the Droid.

Google Droid Ad

The two links in the upper right — the “Get” button and the “Learn more” text link below it — point to verizonwireless.com and droiddoes.com, respectively.

It’s hard to make the case that this isn’t an ad on Google’s home page, and SEO folks will surely notice that neither off-site link uses the nofollow tag. In other words, some can argue that Verizon is effectively buying a link from Google, which Google fights against.

(Postscript: The link from the home page redirects to a virtual page that is blocked by Google’s robots.txt file, so shouldn’t be passing along PageRank and would be in compliance with Google’s paid links policy. But the “Google Search on Droid by Motorola” page has no such block leading to the Verizon site).

For its part, Google will probably point out that it has run promotions on its home page before, like in October, 2008, when it promoted the T-Mobile G1 — the first Android-based phone — on its home page.

google-g1-homepage

At the time, Google denied that was an ad for T-Mobile, instead calling it a promotion for a Google product.

Google has quite famously declared in the past that the Google home page would remain ad free, compared to other portals. Said Google’s Marissa Mayer in 2007:

There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.

But Google actually has a long history of promoting things on its home page. As Mayer also said in 2007:

The Google home page is very simple and when we put a link underneath the Google search box on the home page to advertise one of our products, we say, “Hey, try Google video, it’s new, or download the new Picassa.” Basically it’s the only other thing on the page, and while it does get a fair amount of click through, it’s nothing compared to the search, because most users don’t even see it.

Notable among these was a Da Vinci Code promotion that put a puzzle on the Google home page in 2006, as well promoting Firefox on the home page in the same year. Both were non-Google products being pushed.

What are your thoughts on today’s version of the home page? Is Google advertising Motorola and the Droid phone?

Postscript: Google’s Gabriel Stricker gave us this statement about the Droid mention on Google’s home page:

We are currently running a homepage promotion for Droid. From time to time we include a link on the Google home page that points users to exciting and important information, whether it be relief opportunities in the wake of a tsunami or hurricane, awareness about an important cause, or information about a new product. The Droid is a hardware collaboration that we’ve been very active and involved with, so it makes sense that Google has an interest in getting the word out.



About The Author

Matt McGee
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

Related Topics

Channel: MobileGoogle: MarketingGoogle: MobileGoogle: Partnerships

We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

Lorem ipsum doler this is promo text about SMX events.

April 13, 2021: SMX Create

May 18-19, 2021: SMX London

June 8-9, 2021: SMX Paris

June 15-16, 2021: SMX Advanced

June 21-22, 2021: SMX Advanced Europe

August 17, 2021: SMX Convert

November 9-10, 2021: SMX Next

December 14, 2021: SMX Code

Available On-Demand: SMX

Available On-Demand: SMX Report

×


Learn More About Our SMX Events

Discover actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges. Our next conference will be held:

MarTech 2021: March 16-17

MarTech 2021: Sept. 14-15

MarTech 2020: Watch On-Demand

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • B2B Marketing Trends Shaping 2021
  • State of Email Marketing 2021 Report
  • Three Pillars of CRM Data Management
  • What Customer Experience Means in 2021
  • The 7 Phases of a Website Redesign
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • Crawl Your Way Towards Better Search Results With Dynamic Rendering
  • The AI Revolution Is Coming to Every Stage of Your Buyer’s Journey
  • The Fundamentals of Link Building for E-Commerce & Affiliate Sites in 2021
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

Attend SMX For Only $99

h
Receive daily search news and analysis.

Channels

  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social

Our Events

  • SMX
  • MarTech

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Your privacy means the world to us. We share your personal information only when you give us explicit permission to do so, and confirm we have your permission each time. Learn more by viewing our privacy policy.Ok