Act On CO2 - Googling the Government

Act on CO2 - the UK government recently launched a website backed by a TV advertising campaign. At the end of the advert they encourage people to search online for 'Act On CO2'.

A quick 'google' reveals that the UK government's Department for Transport are running an Adwords campaign, paying-per-click to direct traffic to this URL: http://www.dft.gov.uk/ActOnCO2/ - the body text from which I've copied below:

"ACT ON CO2. You can help

All cars on the road today contribute to climate change because their engines burn fuel and therefore produce carbon dioxide (CO2) every time we drive. Yet you can easily reduce these emissions and save money too. By following a few simple tips and suggestions you can reduce your engine's workload, which means it will burn less fuel and produce less CO2.

You could choose a new car with a more fuel efficient engine. Or make sure your tyres are pumped up correctly to reduce resistance. Even travelling a bit lighter when you're out and about can help.

In fact, by following our Smarter Driving tips and suggestions, CO2 emissions from cars could be reduced by 8%, and if everyone buying a brand new car this year opted for a more fuel efficient model in its class, CO2 emissions from new cars could be significantly reduced.

Remember. You can help. Join the drive to reduce CO2."

The page has further links to pages with content claiming to provide advice for 'Smarter Driving' and 'Car Purchasing Tips'.

The aim of this blog will be to analyse government activity with regards to search, specifically focussed on the DFT 'Act on CO2' website. The unusual shift in language in the TV advert: users being encouraged to "search for act on CO2", not provided with a URL is, to my knowledge, quite unprecedented. It is the opinion of this blogger that this represents an interesting shift - a URL being the direct address of controllable content, a 'search' is essentially the address of a SERP - a series of links to content via URLs, by its very nature a dynamic entity - and nowadays not necessarily just "the listing of web pages" Wikipedia suggests...?

It's interesting to note that the DFT website ranks no. 1 organically in Google at time of writing. As the campaign and issues arising from it are discussed online, it's this blogger's prediction that the official site will fall from the top spot in Google before the TV campaign stops running...and that the CPC required to achieve the top spot in the sponsored links will increase.

So, inviting the voting public to 'search' - the way of the future, or a marketing step too far for 'New Labour'?