A query on Google for “NBC Olympics” returns a video link to a two-minute advertisement for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Torino, and an unobvious change to Google’s Sponsored Links boxes on top of search results.
Is it a paid search result or an organic search result? MediaPost pointed to the search results that appear on Google when performing a query for NBC Olympics.
The top organic result goes to a Google Video, a two-minute piece featuring rock/rap act Flipsyde playing “Someday” while scenes of US Olympians play on-screen. Only one paid link appeared on the search result page, to a firm unrelated to the Olympics or NBC.
The video ends with a display of the Olympic and NBC logos. Also, the same video can be found on iTunes for free, as Flipsyde’s website noted.
Google has blurred the line a bit between paid and organic results here. The blue background that is normally very evident for Google’s paid search results appears to have been toned back dramatically to the point of being nearly indistinguishable from the typical white background.
Other search results where the “One Box” appears atop Google’s SERPs have the same very pale light blue background. Also, instead of the words “Sponsored Link” appearing at the top right of the NBC Olympics box, they instead display “In collaboration with NBC Olympics.”
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
