It would seem that Google’s plan to make a little more money out of Adwords might be about to backfire, in the UK at least. It all stems from the fact that Google is now allowing other companies to bid on competitor’s company names in Adwords. Effectively this means Tesco could bid for the term Asda.

One small problem with this - it’s flying very close to Trademark law in the UK. Part of which means that a company must take steps to protect their Trademark. The first into the breach is Lastminute.com who look like they are going after Google in the courts. I can understand why Lastminute would do this as the holiday market is extremely competitive online and they need to protect the position they’ve built up.

The one issue is that commentators seem unsure if Google is the one that is breaking the law or if it is the companies bidding on their competitor’s terms. It’s a risk for Google but in the short term I think these terms could be extremely profitable for them as people try to protect their name online.

Twitter Japan has launched and it has one thing that we don’t see over here - adverts!

So Twitter are trying the old tried and tested advertising model to bring in some cash. Lets just hope it brings in enough for them advertising on the site and they don’t need to spam everyone with advertisements to their mobile phones! That would kill Twitter dead in no time at all!

UPDATE: Gary Andrews has posted with more details about the current media attention Twitter is receiving and also has some wise words about how companies should approach what may be a new media for them.

I must say I’m shocked at the swiftness that the Information Commissioners Office (ICO)has responded to the Phorm system. The ICO has warned Phorm that the system must be opt in - something that a lot of people have been screaming for ages.

I’m a little worried about Phorm’s response which doesn’t recognise anything the ICO has said about being an opt in service - lets hope it’s just saving face rather than thinking of trying to run with it anyway.

There are still questions regarding data interception but I’m sure the pressure will be kept up and matters resolved. We might actually see a system that could be successful but go about getting the information the correct and ethical way.

Full ICO Phorm statement.

I spotted an interesting article today that references a study that relates online advertising to offline results. It’s pretty obvious that the effects of advertising online aren’t going to relate to results just online however I don’t think I’ve actually seen any figures relating to this.

So then now we know the following about online advertising:

• Online results are easily measurable.
• >80% of transactions initiated online are completed offline.
• The new study found an 3 month online advertising campaign increased online sale 40% and offline sales 50%!
• Online advertising increases brand recognition.
• Online advertising doesn’t clog up my letterbox.