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The spread of a particular policy towards trademarks has some AdWords users in the UK worried.  And if new data from Hitwise is accurate, they should be.

Our own David Utter covered Google's policy change on Saturday; you've probably heard all about it by now, and the central point is that UK advertisers will (like their American counterparts) be able to bid on trademarks as keywords.  What Hitwise UK's Robin Goad discovered is how many searches this will affect.

 Hitwise UK Data

"[W]e found that navigational search was on the increase; in 2007, 76.0% of search volume for the top 2,000 terms was navigational in nature, up from 63.6% in 2006 and 58.2% in 2005," he wrote.

"In other words, there has been a significant increase in navigational search," Goad continued.  "And because most of these terms are trademarked, that means that there has also been an increase in searches for trademarked terms.  Consequently, this change from Google in the UK will have a significant impact on brand owners and affiliates."

Also, as my colleague noted on Saturday, this change will have a significant impact on Google's pockets.  Although there may not be a direct connection, the company's stock does happen to be up $7.31 so far today.