Misleading links
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| djohnston May 05, 2007 11:00 AM EDT |
...are still there. Just did a Google search both from the Firefox searchbox and from Google's home page. The search term "linux notebooks" results in a Dell link as the second sponsored link. The link, http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks... of course, leads to a page with three laptops pre-loaded with Windows. No Linux offerings are on that page. Indeed, no mention of Linux is shown on the page at all. |
| dcparris May 05, 2007 11:57 AM EDT |
Thanks. Hopefully, Kent and John are paying attention - I let John know my report would be out today. |
| tuxchick May 05, 2007 12:31 PM EDT |
Call me wacky, a foamy idealist, a crazy-eyed fanatic, but generally on shopping sites when I click a link for foo, I expect it to take me to a page about foo. Not bar, not blah, nor even feh. But foo itself. But then I am not a bigtime corporate marketeer, so who knows, I might be missing something way advanced beyond my pretty little head. This is what a search for "linux laptop" on dell.com leads to: [url=http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?s=gen&c=us&l=en&cs=&k=linux laptop&cat=prod&x=0&y=0]http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?s=gen&c=us&l=en&cs=&k=li...[/url] Not a Linux nor a laptop in sight. "linux notebook" brings up the same results. "linux server" returns irrelevant results as well, and I know darn well they sell those. A search on "red hat" brings up some almost-relevant results. Like this one: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=0... How nice, it ships with no operating system, or your choices of Windows licenses. Searching on "linux" brings up all kinds of interesting things, like Symantec's PC Anywhere and Adobe Cold Fusion. "linux computer" doesn't help much either. It's been this way ever since I can remember. Ha, and JPD called us cynical. More like "realistic." |
| dinotrac May 05, 2007 1:47 PM EDT |
TC - OTOH, If Dell will fix the links, bring out decent Linux offerings, etc, we should welcome them and consider today to be a different day from yesterday... At least until we're proven wrong. |
| tuxchick May 05, 2007 2:02 PM EDT |
oh I totally agree dino. all I'm saying is talk is cheap, and dell's history with linux is rather pitiful. If they really do what they say they are going to, that will be a wonderful thing, and deserving of cheers. |
| JohnPatDell May 05, 2007 7:34 PM EDT |
Hmmm. I was told this was taken care of. Just forwarded the examples cited above, which hopefully will help us rectify quickly. |
| tracyanne May 05, 2007 10:04 PM EDT |
JohnPatDell. I take it that the Dell Australia Links will be fixed also. |
| Sander_Marechal May 06, 2007 6:01 AM EDT |
JPD: Thanks for the effort :-) |
| tracyanne May 06, 2007 5:15 PM EDT |
I'm still getting ads for DELL when I type in the exact phrase "Linux Computers". I get the following Google results page [url=http://www.google.com.au/search?q="Linux computers"&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a]http://www.google.com.au/search?q="Linux computers"&ie=utf-8...[/url] |
| Scott_Ruecker May 06, 2007 5:18 PM EDT |
I typed in the same thing as you and got this. [url=http://www.google.com/search?q="Linux Computers"&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.debian:en-US:unofficial&client=iceweasel-a/]http://www.google.com/search?q="Linux Computers"&ie=utf-8&oe...[/url] |
| tracyanne May 06, 2007 5:25 PM EDT |
Interesting, that may actually be a Google thing. Because I see an Apple ad in the top corner, it too would have nothing to do with Linux, and an exact phrase search should not return any pages that don't have that exact phrase, and those DELL and Apple links are Google ads, not search results, so Google must be parsing the search criteria and returning ads based on specific words, not phrases. If I were a company that has purchased adsense space I'd complain that my ads are being targeted at the wrong audience, and I'm not getting value for my money. |
| hughesjr May 07, 2007 12:09 AM EDT |
Google is keying on Notebooks or Laptops and not linux ... that is absolutely normal for sponsor adds on google. Dell can't do anything about that. |
| Sander_Marechal May 07, 2007 1:23 AM EDT |
Actually they can. The AdWords interface give you a large ammount of control over what search words your ads appear on, in combination with what other words, what combinations should not generate ad views, etcetera. It's just a matter of a lot of fine tuning. Oh, and Dell probably doesn't do this themselves. They probably employ a Search Engine Marketing company that runs their AdWord campaigns for them. |
| JohnPatDell May 07, 2007 7:38 AM EDT |
Sander: You are very astute. As a result of this dialogue, Dell is in the process of working with marketing in each of its business units, as well as the outside agencies involved, to "fine tune" our broadmatch and keyword insertions. Not a simple task given the degree of global decentralization, but we hear you and are moving on it. Again, it was not our intent to mislead anyone. The kinds of keyword search ads in question don't hit the mark for us, either. |
| number6x May 07, 2007 8:02 AM EDT |
A Google search on the words 'dell linux' (don't use the quotes in the search) gives three news stories followed by the following link:
http://www.dell.com/linux That is a very nice page. The first two links on the page for computers are: http://www.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/desktops_n... http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/nseries_n... These are the desktops and laptops with FreeDOS installed, not linux installed. Configuring a 14.1 laptop the way I'm looking at one of the Linux vendors in the database here at Lxer comes to $1629 at Dell At the Linux vendor (alvio) with pre-installed fedora core, it comes to $1402.64. http://www.alvio.com/xABK_CID748_intel_custom_notebooks.aspx I would save $226.36 by not getting a Dell, dude. |
| Sander_Marechal May 07, 2007 2:00 PM EDT |
number6x: That's fine for me. Better than links to Windows pages. Remember that Dell isn't selling any Linux pc's at all to consumers now, so the FreeDOS boxes are currently the best thing it has to offer Linux folk. If, in that case, Dell should be running Linux ads at all is another (valid) question, but hey, it's not *my* ad budget :-) |
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