Google and Hasbro team up to offer Monopoly game via Google Maps

Are you concerned about Google’s market power?  In recent years, there has been growing scrutiny of Google’s market position with some arguing that it is now effectively a monopoly.  Unfortunately, this can be the curse for the market leader as there are challenges in delineating between leadership and monopoly – a topic that I posted on here.  

I punched the keywords ’google’ + ‘monopoly’ into Google Insights for Search.  The following graph shows the interest in these terms over time:  

 

 

Google will announce Monopoly later today in the form of a tie up with Hasbro. Together the companies will create a live worldwide version of the classic board game using Google Maps. 

This means that searchers that use these search terms together in the future are as likely to come across details of the Hasbro/ Google Maps game as they are to find information or commentary about or research into Google’s market position.

Is this an obvious application of Google Maps or a smart search strategy designed to offset negative Google commentary and limit damage to its corporate reputation?