(Ken) Lay paying search engines to list his Web site first

[rainbow4321]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D87G1U6G0.html


Enron founder Kenneth Lay is paying to make sure major Internet search engines list his Web site first when people search for his name.

Lay's litigation team is using "sponsored links," which appear prominently in searches for a word or name in an Internet search engine. The links are one way for search engines to make money and Web sites to make sure they're noticed. One of the first thing people see when they put the search words "Enron" or "Ken Lay" into search engines such as Google, Yahoo and AOL is a link to kenlayinfo.com. When a person clicks on that link, Lay pays the search engine between about 5 cents and 12 cents.

"I want people to understand Ken Lay's position," Lay's attorney Mike Ramsey said. "I said that if we were going to do a Web site at all, do it so people can find it." The Web site includes carefully chosen articles about Lay, interviews with him, legal filings, and biographical information on him and his legal team.

[nankerphelge]

1. Where is he getting the money?

Shouldn't it be used to compensate Enron victims?

[ogradda]

2. now i'm wondering....

how much i can get him soaked clicking on that link a few twillion times:evilgrin:

[oldtime dfl_er]

5. good plan!!!!!!

www.cafepress.com/showtheworld

[Ian David]

3. Ooh, that wascally wabbit

How do we fuck with this plan?

Can we "google-bomb" this?
http://www.microcontentnews.com/articles/googlebombs.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlebomb

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1868395.stm

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/22/technology/circuits/22goog.html

[UpInArms]

4. frankly, I ignore those sponsored links

knowing that they are commercially organized garbage

http://www.google.com/search?q=enron+ken+lay&sourceid=opera&num=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

there's a wealth of links below the first piece in blue propaganda

here's a nice one:

Enron E-mails Confirm Schwarzenegger-Ken Lay Meeting
... for Schwarzenegger to attend despite the last minute notice, Schwarzenegger should now explain what happened at his meeting with Enron's Ken Lay and whether or ...
www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/pr/pr003708.php3 - 12k - Jan 8, 2005 -

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/pr/pr003708.php3

although this one is nice too :evilgrin:

Kenneth Lay: Bush Pioneer
... Name: Kenneth Lay Occupation: Chair & CEO, Enron Corp. Industry: Energy & Natural Resources Home: Houston, Texas 1999 Salary & Perks: $42.4 Million. ...
www.tpj.org/pioneers/kenneth_lay.html - 6k - Cached - Similar pages

[AntiLempa]

6. Governmental Ties

It's interesting to see that Lay worked for W and HW along with Ann Richards and Bill Clinton. He was on Clinton's Presidents' Council on Sustainable Development (http://www.kenlayinfo.com/public/HUPJB534344344.aspx).

Intersting to see how creeps, such as Lay, can find there way into the power no matter who is governing.

Money talks. . .

[struggle4progress]

7. I enjoyed this sponsored link (which popped up when I googled ...

... "Key Lay"):

Got Swindled?
Well, get Your Money Back!
Securities Fraud Info Resource
hwhp.com

But I don't think the Ownership Society would be pleased ...

[Ian David]

9. I've thought about the "clicking the sponsored links" over and over

I've fooled around with it on Google, but they use some kind of rotating tracking numbers or something.

There's gotta be a way around this though.

Also, working from the opposite side of the equation, google has a TOS rule that says if you are hosting sponsored links on your page (google pays you part of the click fee) that there are certain things you can not do to activate multiple clickthroughs on your page.

They have taken measures to prevent that, as well.

I am sure the other search engines have also invested a great deal of energy in that.

But it raises a couple points.

1) Paid placements directly on the search engine's page- a good challenge to mess with.

2) Paid click-through ads on someone else's page where the search engine links are hosted. There are two possibilities I see here:
1) Do this from a "friendly" page (for example, a bunch of liberal web pages) that happen to enroll in the search engine's program, so that money goes to the good guys
2) Do this from an "un-friendly" page so that they loose their account for violating the search engine's terms of service, because they seem to be trying to cheat the system.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. There's gotta be a way around this though.

Perhaps edit the link to make it interesting to EVERYONE and drop it in freeperland, du, chat rooms, maillists, all sorts of Yahoo Groups, pay to have it put on Netscape's homepage for a couple days... or just leave it as it is and do the same. He should appreciate the publicity.

[HuffleClaw]

8. erm, isn't this a common practice ?

i had thought this business did regularly to drum up trade ?

[Ian David]

10. This is slightly different

This isn't advertising to drum-up business.

This is a move to try and suppress infomation critical of Enron and Ken Lay.

It's as if Michael Jackson started buying paid placement to direct people to his fan club, right before jury selection starts on his trial.

[bpilgrim]

12. google enronomics ;->

http://news.globalfreepress.com/enronomics.shtml

peace

[Name removed]

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