MSN Prepopulates their UK Search Box with "The Apprentice BBC"

Mar 28, 2007 - 12:45 pm 7 by
Filed Under Bing Search

According to threads at both DigitalPoint Forums and Search Engine Roundtable Forums, MSN in the UK is showing that the search box is prefilled with "The Apprentice BBC." This was actually spotted this morning but I was able to reproduce it just now.

The screenshot can be seen below:

MSN UK Prefill Search Box Ad

Barry blogged about it on Search Engine Land as well.

Is this a brokerage deal between Microsoft and the BBC? Danny is following up with both Microsoft and the BBC.

I'm not sure I'm enthusiastic about this implementation and would hope that it does not go further than this "experiment." It would be completely confusing to users who have no intention to search for anything related to "The Apprentice" or whatever else might end up being prepopulated in those search boxes. Even newer users will wonder where they are supposed to search now.

Forum discussions continue at DigitalPoint Forums and SERoundtable Forums. Hat tip to gabs.

Update from Barry: To me, it is looking less to be an ad. More at MSN UK Shows More Prepopulated Kewyords in Search Box.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 18, 2025

Jul 18, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June Core Update Done, Local Ranking Update, AI Mode Updates & AI Calling Businesses

Jul 18, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

New Google Business Profile Check Edit Status

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Login Service Pages Are Hard To Rank In Search

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google AI Overviews For Movie Queries

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Rolling Out Smart Bidding Exploration To Some Advertisers

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Can My Site Rank Higher than .gov TLD Sites?