November 7, 2008 by Matt Thomas
For a very long time now Google has been a little prudish when it comes to alcohol related keywords. Since the inception of the search engine alcoholic keywords have been tightly controlled, with the only ones open for bidding being wine related words. However, according to various sources, Google’s online prohibition is set to end with the news that Google is opening up more explicitly alcohol related terms like, Champagne and Beer.
Google has however, stopped short of okaying people to bid on the hard stuff, liquor related keywords are still not allowed.
Maybe if the credit crunch gets worse… Cynical, I know, but this decision has come on the back of a raft of money spinning changes to the way Google do business, including thawing relations with UK gaming sites. Whatever the reasons, Google stands to make rather a lot of money out of the many bars, off licenses online liquor stores etc that wish to advertise with them.
There’s been a lot of big talk from pundits and people connected with the company, that Google will continue largely unaffected by the global financial crisis. These changes would appear to contradict that. For me, this is evidence that Google is not, repeat not, recession proof.
Related posts:
