• by David Berkowitz , October 17, 2006

When a plane crashed in Manhattan last week, some feared a terrorist attack--while others were completely confounded until it was discovered that New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor were flying the plane. Searches for the pitcher predictably skyrocketed, as he reached number 20 on the Yahoo Buzz Index (up from nothing the day before; the previous high for Lidle this year was number 11,872 at the end of July). A tour of the search engines provided some examples of what to do and what not to do when a news story like this strikes.

Do play it safe by offering information about a breaking story and its protagonist atop the natural search results. For searches on Cory Lidle, Ask.com first answered with a Wikipedia link, then a news roundup, even above the top sponsored result. The one oddity: when I conducted the search, the sole "expand your search" link was to the Cincinnati Reds, the team for which he pitched the fewest games outside of the Yankees, where he was traded this summer from the Phillies. All around, though, Ask offered a commendable first page of results, and the one sponsored link led to a news site.

Don't forget to turn off some keywords for potentially sensitive keywords. Certain advertisers promoted sports merchandise for searches on Corey Lidle. That may or may not be offensive. For those wondering why it wouldn't be, consider a Newsday clipping sent in from loyal reader Ross Wolfson: "Predictably, the death of Cory Lidle caused a ghoulish boom in the market for memorabilia associated with him. A signed ball on eBay that had attracted a top bid of $11 at 4:37 p.m. Wednesday rose to $121.69 by 4:59, to $222 by 5:13 and to $318 by 11:44. Lidle's rookie card rose from 85 cents to $140 during the evening."

That can, at least in my book, justify some advertising even after a tragedy; the consumers have spoken.

Yet advertisers still need to be careful. Consider the word choice by Major League Baseball in an ad spotted on Yahoo for a search on Cory Lidle: "Support the Yankees with new 2006 playoff gear - official MLB shop." This ad appeared six days after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs, so it's hard to imagine why the team would need this kind of support. The billion-dollar ball club also doesn't need financial support. The wording is especially odd in times of a tragedy, where emotional support is paramount, and that's not what the ad implies.

Then there's eBay, which is a perfect destination for those partaking in the "ghoulish boom." It's hard to fault eBay for advertising for the term "Cory Lidle" on Yahoo and MSN. Yet, like most eBay ads, the Lidle ads are generic. One eBay ad on Windows Live Search read, "Looking for Lidle? Find exactly what you want today."

One eBay ad did come up on Google, though it was for a specific product, a signed baseball for $19.95, with only five of them remaining. It's possible the seller, not eBay, ran the ad, though as of the time this article was submitted, I was not able to find out eBay's affiliate bidding policy.

Do proactively look out for advertisers. Google threw a curveball (pardon the pun) in terms of the ads it displayed next to Cory Lidle searches. On Windows Live and Yahoo, eBay ads were easy to find during multiple searches. Google, however, didn't show any generic eBay ads during my tests. Except for the one eBay auction listed, which doesn't seem like it was directly from eBay, the only advertisers were from media properties offering news on the crash. On Yahoo, all the advertisers were commercial, peddling merchandise and memorabilia. As for Windows Live, there was some of everything, including an ad for "Free Lidle Ringtones," and the classic eBay generic copy, "Buy and Sell Lidle on eBay."

Though I wasn't able to get an official statement from Google by the time this column was submitted, I suspect Google had a role in preventing certain ads from appearing next to the sensitive keyword of the pitcher's name. It's odd that eBay ads didn't appear for Cory Lidle searches in Google when they did for the same searches in Yahoo and MSN, and they also appeared in Google for searches on other ballplayers, such as Jared Wright, Pedro Martinez, and Greg Maddux. Then again, it could be argued that the absence of eBay ads for Lidle searches on Google is a fluke, since with any of the searches I conducted for major leaguers, Yahoo and MSN displayed more ads and a greater variety of advertisers. The lack of eBay ads on Google for "Cory Lidle" could just be the engine trying to make its ads more relevant.

The most relevant takeaway for you is that no search happens in a vacuum. Something must trigger it, and that trigger is often the news story du jour. Every news story will present some marketers with an opportunity, and when the story is tragic, that opportunity may well be to take advantage of how easy it is to reword, adapt, or even suspend the search marketing campaign. Or, that opportunity could be a ghoulish boom.