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Comment by whacked_new | Hacker News Reader

I believe the ad method described there is mostly unique to Japan. Most phones have internet access, and there are quick access keys to web search. The text box appears, and you type. So almost all ads involving websites show a text box with the keyword inside. I never looked into this, but I suspect vendors would pay for special keywords.

Meanwhile, I doubt a business model that applies to Japan would immediately be useful elsewhere. The extensive train system in Japan means that ads placed in trains are guaranteed to be seen, and passengers have their hands free to press buttons on their phones. On the other hand, USA is all cars.

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I think you're way off the mark. Advertising a keyword instead of a url is a much more effective way of directing users to a specific page on a website. AOL knew this, and when they were the dominant service provider tons of companies would direct you to their site through an AOL keyword. Today I still hear a lot of radio commercials encouraging listeners to get involved in contests by going to their websites and entering a keyword.

you are right; point taken.

the thing is, well, as a casual observer, i have noticed that in USA, take tv ads for example, you would hear the company name repeated over and over. Overstock.com Bigredo.com hotels.com... blah blah. In Japan, I recall a higher frequency of ads, static and TV alike, go "search for blah."

but yeah, i have zero research behind that claim.

Actually, ads in Japan usually have a little black blob that looks like a checkboard barcode. If you point a Japanese cellphone camera at it, it interprets the barcode as a URL then loads up the page on your phone. If they're telling you to search for a keyword, then the idea must be "you know, later, when you're not looking at this ad with your phone in your pocket."

…Or the company doesn't know where to find URL-to-barcode converter software, but that would be weird, because they paid for a pretty good looking ad apart from the lack of barcode.

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