Mozilla brand is strong! Mozilo’s PR is whoops! (Did I really click “Reply All”?)

May 27th, 2008 , No Comments

If you got here through a search engine in the past few hours, you are very likely to have typed “Realty Check: Who sparked Countrywide CEO Mozillaâ€™s â€œdisgustingâ€ e-mail reply?”

Yep, this is one of those geeky entries, but it does suggest that search is a great reflection of social trends. Here’s how:

When The Financial Chairman of US lender Countrywide, Angelo Mozilo, ignited an online furore in the US on Tuesday by describing a mortgage customer’s plea for help as a “disgusting” example of form letters inundating his company, one unexpected effect was a testament to the growing popularity of the Mozilla brand, home to the Firefox browser.

Instead of searching for Mozilo, most US Google searches on this topic included the terms “ceo mozilla disgusting email”.

This may be an indication of the growing popularity of the Firefox browser as an alternative to Internet Explorer, and it is clear that brand recognition of Mozilla, even if passive, is fairly high. This effect is obviously not assisted by the spell checker on Microsoft applications suggesting Mozilla for Mozilo, every time…

Good for Mozilla, I say. Maybe also good for Mozilo (they found a browser instead of him).

Geeky entry ends –

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For more on this story::

=> Countrywide CEO Mozilo criticizes customer e-mail - on CNBC.

=> Views on PR and Mozilo in light of this story on Steve Cody’s RepMan’s Blog.

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