Google profits from UK.gov's climate change quango rivalry

The Register
"The government department responsible for climate change policy has admitted bidding against one of its own quangos for advertising on Google, forcing up the cost to taxpayers.Ed Miliband's Department of the Environment and Climate Change (DECC) said it sometimes battles the Energy Saving Trust to sponsor links on the dominant web search engine.DECC has spent £361,700 in the last 12 months on search keywords such as "climate change" and "global warming" to target Google users with government publicity urging them to cut their carbon emissions.The Energy Saving Trust has meanwhile spent more than £270,000 on similar advertising in the last 12 months.The keywords are sold by Google in online auctions, so the rivalry between DECC and the quango means the cost per click is increased."

H/T Dr Richard North