Google snubbed on Orange County

[geekerati]

Google second class with hipsters?
January 28, 2005, 2:56 PM PST

Like the tight-fitting fashions and teeny rock bands of last season's frothy nighttime soap "The O.C.," Google is like...so...yesterday.

Writers for the popular show on Fox chose to plug Amazon.com's new search engine A9.com as a synonym for hunting down something on the Web, instead of using the well-worn phrase "I Googled it," like leagues of others. "I A9.com'd him last night, and according to the O.C. Weekly, he's pretty much everything that's wrong with Western civilization," one of the cast members said to another on Thursday night's episode.

Western civilization (the media) has pretty much been obsessed with Google in recent years, making it a household name and a verb for Web research on anything from shopping to prospective dates. But apparently in hipper echelons of entertainment and media, there's a new game in town. In testament to that notion, A9, which launched in September with a more personalized approach to Web search, said it did not pay to have its name mentioned on "The O.C."

"We didn't even know it was going to air," A9 Chief Udi Manber said. But "it shows people like...A9...and that they are telling their friends and family."

--Stefanie Olsen

Do you all believe that Amazon's brass truely had no idea they were going to be 'plugged' on this TV show? I've been known to be a bit skeptical, but I still think it's rubbish. They'll chase Google from now to eternity and still be looking at its taillights! Our favorite is still getting all kinds of publicity out of it, none the less. Oh well, with more competition around the general public wins, so bring them on.

Source

[Eric]

I wouldn't care what he hippies at "Orange County" prefer, Google was, is and will continue to be #1.
Personally I don't believe the Amazon guys, like OBVIOUSLY they paid the writers of the soap opera. They're not going admit it, now are they? They all want positive publicity, and saying they didn't know about it would lead most people to believe that it must really be something good and their curiousity would drive them to try it. Personally, I think Google's search engine is better than Amazon's. They have a few good features which A9 doesn't. Ofcourse in the same way, Altavista has a few features Google doesn't and vice versa. All search engines in my opinion have some unique features that make them special, but Google seems to have overall more appreciated features.

[intelliot]

Doesn't A9 use Google search results?