I heard a radio advert this morning telling my that if I blow my car tyres up to the correct pressure, I’ll be helping to reduce global warming. At least, I think that’s what the point was. It was early. Anyway, the ad finished by saying something along the lines of:

Search the web for [act on co2] for more information.

It seems that this is the latest campaign from the UK Government to help educate people about ways in which we can prevent global warming. (I think.) And since they were restricted to a 30-second advert, someone had the bright idea of telling people to search the web to find out more. What a great idea!

So let’s take a look at the results returned by the four most popular search engines...

Google – www.google.com/search?q=act+on+co2

• Top sponsored result links to:
  Act on CO2
  www.dft.gov.uk
• Top organic result links to:
  With help from you, we can reduce CO2 | ACT ON C02
  www.dft.gov.uk/ActOnCO2/

Yahoo – search.yahoo.com/search?p=act+on+co2

• Top sponsored result links to:
  Need a Fire Extinguisher?
  www.actfire.co.uk
• Top organic result links to:
  .: Albany Democrat-Herald :. Archives
  www.dhonline.com/articles/2006/11/30/news/opinion/4edi01_congress.txt

Windows Live – search.live.com/results.aspx?q=act+on+co2

• Top sponsored result links to:
  Information and resources for co2
  www.gawwk.co.uk
• Top organic result links to:
  Housewarming: Issues
  www.housewarming.org.uk/issues.html

Ask – www.ask.com/web?q=act+on+co2

• Top sponsored result links to:
  CO2 Cartridges
  www.tyreinflators.co.uk
• Top organic result links to:
  Act on CO2 minister urges motorists
  www.egovmonitor.com/node/9712

Whilst some of the information you find when searching for [act on co2] on any search engine could potentially be useful, I think it’s obvious that the UK government intended people to use Google and find the Department for Transport’s website.

Why didn’t they just grab ActOnCO2.com (which is available) or another similar domain? Or just tell people “to google” for [act on co2] instead?

(Maybe they wanted to avoid parody sites being setup using similar domains like what happened when they launched their Preparing for Emergencies campaign a few years ago...)

Labels: ask, google, microsoft, personal, rant, yahoo