

Search for Obama on Facebook and You Get Romney - eidorianu
http://diegobasch.com/search-for-obama-on-facebook-and-you-get-romney

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joelrunyon
Bidding on competitor terms is nothing new.

Yes, it might be a poor use of their money, but they can decide what to do
with their ad money.

As a commenter on the blog noted: Google regulates this somewhat with their
quality score algorithm and charges more for people with irrelevant ads &
content, but at the ened of the day, if someone wants to bid their way to the
top, it's still just an auction system and they can certainly do that if they
want.

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diego
That is true for Google. However, we don't know if this is the case with
Facebook. I have no insider knowledge, but I suspect that Romney's campaign
must have approached Facebook and worked out a one-off deal. I see Romney as
the top sponsored result _every_ time I try the search. Apparently it started
several weeks ago. For me it won't stop showing up, even when it's clear that
I have no intention of ever clicking on it.

My opinion is that it's a terrible way for Facebook to showcase their entry
into the market of paid placement for search results.

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jakeludington
Facebook is in the process of gradually rolling out sponsored search. I think
businesses with big budgets get to cut to the front of the line.

What's curious to me is the difference between the Democrats and Republicans
on this. The Romney campaign is clearly on the offensive as well as playing
smart defense. If you search for Paul Ryan, you see Romney as the top result.
If you search for Bill Clinton, either Ryan or Romney show up. The Obama
campaign does not appear to be bidding on any terms.

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justin66
There's no telling whether it's the campaigns themselves actually spending
that money, is there?

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tokenadult
This was discussed on Hacker News 23 days ago:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4441245>

My Facebook friends mostly just think it is funny. (That's regardless of what
their political opinions are.)

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macrael
An important distinction between this and Google's sponsored search results in
that it is happening in typeahead completion instead of on a results page. As
far as I know, google does not put sponsored results in its completion
suggestions (though even that is a little different: selecting a google
suggestion takes you to the corresponding search page, not to where you
ultimately want to go, as the facebook search does). And the real difference
is that when you go to a page of google search results, even if there are
sponsored results, you have to click on an ad to go there. In Facebook search,
the expected result of typing someone's name into the search bar is to press
enter and immediately go to their page.

I find the sponsored results in Google to be much less off putting.

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gojomo
_…google does not put sponsored results in its completion suggestions…_

Not yet, at least – but if you use 'Instant', where the results are appearing
below the completion dropdown, you will see ads flashing there on less-than-
your-full query.

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jiggy2011
Wow, by the looks of that screenshot Obama is absolutely thrashing Romney in
terms of "Likes".

Maybe Obama is just more popular with a younger facebook using crowd?

~~~
qq66
Also, Obama has been the President of the US for 4 years. There are many
people abroad who think Obama is a pretty cool guy, but haven't even heard of
Romney.

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beernutz
Hmmm. I see Obama as the first returned result. Not sure where the difference
is. Could it be specific Facebook "tweaking" based on profiles?

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chucknthem
It's an ad, you're probably not in the targeted audience for it.

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bsphil
BINGO Blitz being #2 is a much more curious to me.

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drivebyacct2
To be fair, it's under a "Sponsored" heading (if you look hard enough).

I completely agree with the article. People complain about the screen real
estate on Google results pages without realizing that the other things on the
page are either highly relevant ads, or _tools to help you search
better/efficiently_.

In this case, Facebook is doing the opposite. NOTHING about that is good and I
don't know why anyone would pay for it. Anyone looking for Obama is not going
to NOT NOTICE that they just wound up on Romney's page. They're going to roll
their eyes, do the search again and be more diligent.

And Romney will have paid for that click in one way or another. Maybe I'll go
do that search a few more times...

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tibbon
Actually, when I searched it came up like this:

<http://i.imgur.com/VycSD.png>

Not sponsored (for me). Just showing the opposite in the search results.

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drivebyacct2
hehe, look about 10 pixels below where you typed "obama".

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tibbon
Oh geez. Duh. They are both sponsored. Reading fail on my part.

However, I guess that shows that even when you're looking for it... you
sometimes don't see it, showing why these might be a terrible idea. Or a
brilliant idea.

