Greggs plc, the largest bakery in the United Kingdom, just got majorly Google bombed. What is a Google bomb? The Washington Post explains:
“‘Google bombing’ involves people linking a Web site to key phrase to artificially elevate that site in search results.”
For instance, according to Mashable , back in 2005, the liberal Daily Kos blog “called on readers to Google bomb the Bill O’Reily name… by placing BillOReilly.com links on websites and blogs alongside the term ‘terrorist sympathizer.’” This in turn made Bill O’Reily’s website pop up whenever anyone searched for the term ‘terrorist sympathizer.’
Something similar happened with Greggs bakery, though for accidental and not purposeful reasons. The satirical website Uncyclopedia recently created a page dedicated to Greggs and used a fake (though inordinately hilarious) logo that read, “Greggs: Providing sh*t to scum for over 70 years.” Due to an unintentional search engine algorithm glitch, the logo winded up showing up in Greggs official Google listing, as well as its Google Maps listing:
That’s not likely going to be good for business, right? Well, actually, it might. Sky News reports that the completely unintended mishap ended up going viral , which in turn had the serendipitous effect of bringing lots of attention to Greggs bakery.
Plus, the brilliant minds at Greggs decided to use the whole logo fiasco as a marketing ploy by issuing the following tweet:
Hey @GoogleUK , fix it and they’re yours!!! #FixGreggs pic.twitter.com/d5Ub7qtrLG
— Greggs (@GreggstheBakers) August 19, 2014
Google UK responded about 30 minutes later by issuing its own tweet:
Sorry @GreggstheBakers, we’re on it. Throw in a sausage roll and we’ll get it done ASAP. #fixgreggs pic.twitter.com/THXuMubrQq
— Google UK (@GoogleUK) August 19, 2014
The fun back and forth continued until Google announced that it had fixed the logo mistake, after which Greggs tweeted the following:
Aaaand relax! Maybe those kind folks @GoogleUK could give us the doodle tomorrow? pic.twitter.com/IerRUVW0Z8
— Greggs (@GreggstheBakers) August 19, 2014
The search engine giant unfortunately did not take up Greggs’ request to change its critically acclaimed daily doodle, though it did reply with a rather comical tweet:
Whoops! Sorry @GreggstheBakers. #fixgreggs , #fixedgreggs #ategreggs pic.twitter.com/64Q53qck1B
— Google UK (@GoogleUK) August 19, 2014
Ultimately, all is well that ends well, and the simple fact of the matter is that Greggs bakery inadvertently managed to win a whole slew of positive media attention via this whole logo fiasco. So the question remains: When is Google going to bomb Inquisitr !? WINK!
Image via [ Google Images ]
