Google has launched its remarkable Street View service of British cities to a mixed reaction. Supporters of the technology marvel at its cleverness and talk about how the service can revolutionise how people research cities to visit and houses to buy. Opponents argue it invades individual privacy and is a potential security hazard. And then [...]

New research from Brand Republic has found that the British public are prepared to have their browsing monitored to facilitate a more personalised service from the search engine providers. Apparently Google intends to monitor user habits in order to target ads and this has alarmed privacy advocates who believe such acts are too much of [...]

The Centre for Brand Analysis has published its UK Superbrands list for 2009 with some interesting inclusions. The first thing that stands out is that Google is top of the list, as it was in 2008. And its rivals are nowhere in sight. This reiterates just how powerful the Google brand continues to be. The [...]

If you thought that spending more than your competitors on pay per click (PPC) advertising campaigns was all that you needed to do to get top billing then you would be wrong. In fact very wrong. PPC plays a key part in delivering high Google rankings, but it is not the only factor. Google is [...]

Back in May 2008 Google controversially changed its rules to allow companies to bid on rival trademarks. This afforded firms the potential opportunity to achieve top billing on rival terms. Understandably, this change generated a new campaign intensity that inevitably increased PPC prices. However, new research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising states average [...]

As a brand name Google is arguably unmatched in the world. The fact that the proper noun has become a commonly used verb – ‘googled’- says it all. But while a brand can be the most recognisable in its particular arena, it does not necessarily translate into being the most successful. Now, yes admittedly Google [...]

Interflora has become the first trademark holder to challenge Google’s Adword policy of allowing companies to bid on rivals’ trademarked terms. The US flower delivery giant has issued a lawsuit in the UK courts citing the UK Trade Marks Act as its justification. Interestingly, it is not Google that Interflora is suing but two British [...]

Beleaguered ITV boss Michael Grade has referred to online video sites, such as YouTube, as ‘parasites’ to commercial broadcasters. See Brand Republic article . In an interview at the IBC technology conference, the former Channel 4 and BBC man reportedly said operators such as YouTube, Google and Joost are “parasites” living off the TV shows [...]

Last week Google made front page news with the revelation that its StreetView mapping cars had hit the roads of UK cities. For those of you who don’t know what Google StreetView is, it is the 360 degree photographing of urban layouts to produce a complete online photographic record of any given point within the [...]

It is a familiar scenario: we need more space, so we will add more space, then we expand our habits to fill it and once again we need more space. This is a problematic circle that can be attributed to a number of different areas of life, consider home buying or motorway construction, but for [...]