A Google bomb is where you take over a keyword – usually a made up name or phrase – and “game” Google’s search:
The terms Google bomb and Googlewashing refer to practices intended to influence the ranking of particular pages, in results returned by the Google search engine. (wikipedia)
I remember Quinn running keyword bombs in Usenet newsgroups in the ’90s so it’s a popular pastime. Recent one’s on twitter have been #fisting (informal) and #velociroflcoptersaurus (happner and Amnesia).
Now Skittles have outdone themselves. In order to appear on their home page – the whole home page has been taken over – you have to use the word “Skittles” on Twitter.
They ask for your date of birth because SOMEONE will post #skittles and #fisting and #velociroflcoptersaurus. Guaranteed. (NSFW means not safe for work but safe for brands? heh).
Shame they ruined it by placing a whopping big ad over the Twitter sign. Non-Twitterers won’t get it *sighs* (hat tip Dean Collins)
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Hey Laurel,
I agree the widget style branding on top of the page makes the navigation somewhat confusing.
However i like the attempt to integrate social media channels with the parent skittles brand (i.e. twitter, flickr, facebook, youtube etc).
Could probably do with some jump page style message better explaining the idea..
I say good on them for the attempt but probably leaving users confused as it comes across as some kind of stunt.
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It IS some kind of stunt
Though let’s face it, more brands would be honest/authenticate if they just shoved stuff on shelves and let us talk about it online.
I mean, how many ways can an agency say “yum. skittles” and sound authentic? then ask a group of kids and twitterers (no diff) and see how they make it sound
Nice idea, but somehow a bit clumsy. Overlay navigation is confusing. They could do better with simple panel above pages, not over it. Still a good start. Quick way to get into social net…
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I trust you didn’t insert YOUR date of birth. I tried to insert 01-01-1700 but it said something was wrong, so 01-01-1901 worked.
Ari Herzog’s last blog post..Guest Post by Christopher Gabriel: The Carousel of Social Media
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“one’s” is not possessive, it’s plural. you should remove the apostrophe.
then delete this comment.
I created a blog post on twitter bombs with a link back to this article. Hope I accurately summarized the concept.
http://howtowritebusinessplan.blogspot.com/2009/05/twitter-bomb-how-it-works.html
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