Branded search gets seriously weird. Dancer/singer/model/wrestler and, as Britney Spears' husband, tabloid fodder Kevin Federline has his own search engine. The hook: users win prizes.


Figure 1. K-Fed dares you to search for Popozao

Says the site, "Every day we pick random winning times. If you are the first person to search after the selected time, you win a prize - instantly!"

Prizes include Kevin Federline t-shirts, autographed photos, and copies of his CD.

Interestingly, this concept sounds similar to some of Justin Hall's ideas about what he calls "Passively Multiplayer Online Gaming". Sure, some people spend eight hours a day playing World of Warcraft and are rewarded with experience points, levels, and magic swords. But what about those of us who spend eight hours a day on the computer performing searches, writing e-mail messages, browsing to new and interesting sites, and so on? Who's to say that we shouldn't get rewards, too? Why can't online life and work be more like a game and less like...life and work?

I suspect that Justin Hall is not considering Kevin Federline swag as potential PMOG rewards.

Tags: Kevin Federline, search, Justin Hall, PMOG