Let me give an example.  One of our bigger competitors is Ozone Billiards.  When I set up my Google Adwords campaigns, I don’t run ads on searches for ozone billiards, ozonebilliards.com, etc. because it is both sleazy and unnecessary.  Ozone in turn does not advertise on searches for pooldawg, pooldawg.com, etc.

Now most of the folks in this business play nice, but there’s one that doesn’t.

I don’t know if I should be flattered that he thinks our brand is so much stronger than his, irritated that he’s trying to trick customers into visiting his site or just plain sorry for him that he needs to resort to such sleazy tactics in order to try and get some extra sales.

Of course its not just us.  He uses this “tactic” on every major name in the business.  Ozone, Mueller’s, Cuesight, etc.  For some, he even goes so far as to violate the Google TOS by using the company’s name in his ads.  I even politely asked him to stop.  I explained to him that there are literally thousands of relevant keywords to choose from, so it seems unnecessary to try and confuse searchers.  His response was to blame some anonymous affiliate.  When I explained to him that if it was an affiliate he could simply look at the target url to figure out who it was, he stopped responding.

I guess a bad economy makes people desperate.  Pathetic.

Yiddish Word of the Moment:

Nayfish: A weak, pathetic person of little consequence.

Well, I decided to check in on on of the companies I used to work for who recently filed for bankruptcy and it looks like they won’t be coming back.

What was even more surprising was that the other associated URLs from that company (Brainplay.com and KBKids.com) just go to 404 error pages instead of redirecting as they used to.  At any rate, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this one.  I was one of the first employees there, back when it was called Thunderbeam, working in a small office with Srikant, Karlyn, Walt and Adam.  On the other hand, there were reasons why I left and there were reasons why this company ended up going belly up.

At any rate, I’ll bid Thunderbeam/Brainplay/KBKids/KBToys a fond farewell.

Yiddish Word of the Moment:

Schmutz
Definition:  Dirt or some other type of miscellaneous debris
Example:  Come over here, you’ve got some schmutz on your face.

Looks like the auto industry is at least temporarily completely fucked.  The reason for the talks collapse?  The UAW decided that they wouldn’t do their part in cutting costs.  The UAW was told that the Big 3 employees need to be willing to take pay cuts that put them in line with the Japanese automakers.  The UAW said no, essentially cutting off their nose to spite their collective faces.  Now instead of being overpaid by dying companies, they’re going to find themselves on the dole.

I really don’t get it.  The UAW should better.  If GM files for bankruptcy, first all the common shareholders get wiped out, then they start closing plants and dealerships.  Part of me would like to see a re-org, as these companies have been run into the ground and need to be fixed.  Unfortunately, a re-org will have a disasterous impact on the economy.

I’m guessing that they’ll figure out a way to get it done before any of the Big 3 file for bankruptcy, but I’m dreading watching the opening bell this morning.