In a recent TV commercial for the [Kellogg’s](http:\/\/www.kelloggs.com\/) breakfast cereal, the call to action for viewers is to search for [`special k`](http:\/\/search.yahoo.com\/search?p=Special+K) using the Yahoo search engine. [Hitwise has talked about](http:\/\/weblogs.hitwise.com\/bill-tancer\/2007\/01\/special_k_another_tv_search_ca.html) how the TV ad affects search volume for the term.<\/p>\n
What’s interesting about this is that “Special K” is slang for [Ketamine](http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ketamine) a “general dissociative anesthetic for human and veterinary use” that is used as a recreational drug. Why would Kellogg’s risk associating their cereal with recreational drug use by inviting their customers to a page which is purported to be an unbiased representation of a search term?<\/p>\n
A quick visit to the Yahoo page shows absolutely no results related to Ketamine or recreational drug use. However, a [Google search for `special k`](http:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=special+k) devotes positions 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10 to pages related to Ketamine plus 1 of 7 related searches include a drug reference.<\/p>\n
To give perspective, a Google search for `”special k”` (in quotes) gives 1.33 million results. Removing any references to the cereal using the search [`”special k” -kellogg -cereal`](http:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=%22special+k%22+-kellogg+-cereal) yields 1.17 million results. If 88% of web pages on the internet which mention “special k” are talking about the drug, how can none of Yahoo’s top results for the term mention the drug?<\/p>\n
This is an example of the culture difference between these two engines that yields a dramatically different result in user loyalty.<\/p>\n
**Edit:** Upon further research, it looks like [someone already noted a difference in the search results](http:\/\/nilhan.co.uk\/2007\/01\/21\/tv-ads-chalenging-search-loyalty\/). (Kocchi just misinterpreted the *direction* of slant.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a recent TV commercial for the [Kellogg’s](http:\/\/www.kelloggs.com\/) breakfast cereal, the call to action for viewers is to search for [`special k`](http:\/\/search.yahoo.com\/search?p=Special+K) using the Yahoo search engine. [Hitwise has talked about](http:\/\/weblogs.hitwise.com\/bill-tancer\/2007\/01\/special_k_another_tv_search_ca.html) how the TV ad affects search volume for the term. What’s interesting about this is that “Special K” is slang for [Ketamine](http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ketamine) a “general…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,4,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whoisgregg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whoisgregg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whoisgregg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whoisgregg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whoisgregg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.whoisgregg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whoisgregg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whoisgregg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whoisgregg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}