Google So Dominant That A French Town Might Need To Change Its Name?

from the or-hire-some-better-seo? dept

Thu, Feb 26th 2009 2:09pm — Mike Masnick

Apparently, the French coastal town of Eu is so upset that people can't find the town via a Google search, that it's considering changing its name. The mayor of the town is quite concerned about how this is impacting the town's tourism business -- which does show the cultural dominance of Google, these days, on some things. Of course, as the article notes, a search on Eu french town turns up plenty of results -- though, even those are currently dominated by stories like this one about the name search. Perhaps the town just needs to hire better SEO experts...

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Filed Under: eu, france, search engines, seo, tourism
Companies: google

12 Comments

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Mano Marks, 26 Feb 2009 @ 3:02pm

But...
This isn't just a Google thing. Do a Yahoo! search on Eu. And BTW, if you search on Eu in maps.google.com, it finds the town of Eu in France, it doesn't go to the European Union.
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Sos, 26 Feb 2009 @ 3:22pm

This is actually quite forward thinking!
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2009 @ 3:47pm

Atleast their not trying to sue Google.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2009 @ 3:47pm

Re:
They're*

-Sorry
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some old guy, 26 Feb 2009 @ 4:02pm

I support this!
They have a stupid name for this day and age, changing it is a very smart move.

And its not that "google" is so dominant, its that "full text parsing keyword search" is so dominant.
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cOOcOOcAChuUU, 26 Feb 2009 @ 5:05pm

This is actually quite brilliant marketing on their part. I just spent the last 10 minutes or so reading about the town - did you know that William the Conqueror was married there back before he did any conquering at all? Anyhow, I bet more people discover the town through this story which is all over the internets, than they would if they had a more searchable name to begin with! If they change their name it will probably be an even bigger story. Well played, Mayor Marie-Fraçoise Gaouyer.
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Christopher Froehlich, 26 Feb 2009 @ 6:26pm

Re: I support this!
Indeed. Imagine living in the Andes and googling 'Amazon' without keyword context.
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Just Passing Through, 26 Feb 2009 @ 7:07pm

cOOcOOcAChuUU - Feb 26th, 2009 @ 5:05pm:
Of course, as the article notes, a search on Eu french town turns up plenty of results -- though, even those are currently dominated by stories like this one about the name search. Perhaps the town just needs to hire better SEO experts...
I think it's a creative use of a variant of the Streisand effect. Make a big public complaint that the search engines don't know you're there. Then watch as the story attracts attention to your town.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2009 @ 7:49pm

Wow. I found it on my second try in Google (and not using Google Maps). Guess it's just easier for some than others.
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Sean VanSickle, 26 Feb 2009 @ 8:23pm

Re: Just Passing Through
I agree.. How to gain attention to one's self? Complain and mention Google's name!
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دليل دلع, 4 Nov 2009 @ 2:32am

Dir.Dll3.cc
This is exactly how KinderStart plans on increasing its page ranking in Google. All this free press is driving people to KinderStart just to see what it's all about. Right now there are 5 commentors above me who already increased their traffic. Remember: click and eyeballs. They just made their company more profitable because this suit drove TONS of new eyeballs to its site. EXACTLY what it intended to do. Win or lose in court, the ploy will work. Come on people, learn to read between the lines. شات الخليج كتابي وزارة الخدمة المدنية يوتيوب فيديو
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قلبي, 19 Nov 2009 @ 12:15pm

3bdalazez-Qlbe-2010
Wow. I found it on my second try in Google (and not using Google Maps). Guess it's just easier for some than others. شات الرياض شات عالم الرومانسية شات حبي شات برق
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