5 ms·

Tesla started selling a literal whistle in recent days, presumably as an SEO thing to bury this news with something more banal. Pretty slimy stuff.

s5300 5y ago
You can wipe up all the slime with your Apple Cloth^(tm)
- me_me_me 5y ago
  please stop, this is getting depressing real quick :(
analognoise 5y ago
Oh my God I thought you were joking - "there's no way this is true" Direct link: https://shop.tesla.com/product/cyberwhistle?sku=1715672-00-A https://shop.tesla.com/product/cyberwhistle?sku=1715672-00-A What kind of nightmare dystopia is this timeline.
- visarga 5y ago
  It's an abstract whistle.
- cdirkx 5y ago
  I remember a similar thing as Boris Johnson was about to become prime minister [1] > As Boris Johnson described his hobby of making model buses out of wine crates and painting happy passengers at the windows, it looked like an off-the-cuff revelation. > Google searches for “Boris Johnson Bus” led to negative stories about Mr Johnson’s EU referendum stunt in which he travelled on a coach emblazoned with the claim that Britain sent £350 million a week to the EU. This claim led to a failed attempt to prosecute Mr Johnson. > After the radio interview these reports were pushed out of the search results. Of course it could just be that Boris really likes to make boxes, just like Tesla really likes to make whistles. [1]https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-s-not-fare-doubters-say-boris-johnson-is-burying-bus-news-shtwxq7x9 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-s-not-fare-doubters-sa... Also discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21122806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21122806
sailingparrot 5y ago
As Presumed by who exactly? You? Anyone thinking that you can burry « whistleblower » with « whistle » (and it’s actually called cyberwhistle) has not checked how SEO works since 1998. I mean, you could have just tried a google search before making accusations.
- djrobstep 5y ago
  Are you paid to do Tesla PR or are you just part of the personality cult?
- tyingq 5y ago
  You could make backlinks with the right context though. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1465838829370228737 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1465838829370228737 For me, 3 of the top 10 SERPS for "tesla whistleblower" are stories about this whistle product.
  - sailingparrot 5y ago
    Stories talking about how Elon Musk is making fun of whistleblowers by selling a whistle. Including details and/or links to the actual whistleblowers stories. That's not exactly burying anything, more like promoting. Burying would be if you were to search for "tesla whistleblowers" on Google and Google just giving you links to the whistle product, not allowing you to find the information you are looking for. But that's not how Google, or any other major search engine, works, or has worked for a very long time. So saying that's why Tesla/Elon are doing it, is quite simply false.
    - tyingq 5y ago
      Sure, I can't say why they are doing it, but it has taken up 3 slots in probably the most common query. A reputation management company would be really happy with that result. They wouldn't expect one theme to fix it all.
    - Pyramus 5y ago
      You underestimate the power of a false balance, and in a way, Elon Musk. When searching about "whistleblowing tesla" (or "whistle blowing tesla"!) there should be zero stories about the Tesla whistle. You turn facts that are 100% negative (Tesla has a big whistleblowing problem) into something that's 30% positive (or neutral). That's a PR win on a massive, almost unheard of scale. Just imagine the VW CEO doing a stunt like this to soften Dieselgate ...
tyingq 5y ago
Elon's companion tweet makes it even more obvious. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1465838829370228737 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1465838829370228737
rootusrootus 5y ago
I'm not sure if it really will work for that. But judging from the comments from Tesla fans, it's an easy way to print about $49. They could probably charge double that.
- judge2020 5y ago
  In fact, the second-hand market for it on Ebay has it going for 150-200 right now.

s5300 5y ago

You can wipe up all the slime with your Apple Cloth^(tm)

me_me_me 5y ago
please stop, this is getting depressing real quick :(

analognoise 5y ago

Oh my God I thought you were joking - "there's no way this is true" Direct link: https://shop.tesla.com/product/cyberwhistle?sku=1715672-00-A https://shop.tesla.com/product/cyberwhistle?sku=1715672-00-A What kind of nightmare dystopia is this timeline.

visarga 5y ago
It's an abstract whistle.
cdirkx 5y ago
I remember a similar thing as Boris Johnson was about to become prime minister [1] > As Boris Johnson described his hobby of making model buses out of wine crates and painting happy passengers at the windows, it looked like an off-the-cuff revelation. > Google searches for “Boris Johnson Bus” led to negative stories about Mr Johnson’s EU referendum stunt in which he travelled on a coach emblazoned with the claim that Britain sent £350 million a week to the EU. This claim led to a failed attempt to prosecute Mr Johnson. > After the radio interview these reports were pushed out of the search results. Of course it could just be that Boris really likes to make boxes, just like Tesla really likes to make whistles. [1]https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-s-not-fare-doubters-say-boris-johnson-is-burying-bus-news-shtwxq7x9 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-s-not-fare-doubters-sa... Also discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21122806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21122806

sailingparrot 5y ago

As Presumed by who exactly? You? Anyone thinking that you can burry « whistleblower » with « whistle » (and it’s actually called cyberwhistle) has not checked how SEO works since 1998. I mean, you could have just tried a google search before making accusations.

djrobstep 5y ago
Are you paid to do Tesla PR or are you just part of the personality cult?
tyingq 5y ago
You could make backlinks with the right context though. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1465838829370228737 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1465838829370228737 For me, 3 of the top 10 SERPS for "tesla whistleblower" are stories about this whistle product.
- sailingparrot 5y ago
  Stories talking about how Elon Musk is making fun of whistleblowers by selling a whistle. Including details and/or links to the actual whistleblowers stories. That's not exactly burying anything, more like promoting. Burying would be if you were to search for "tesla whistleblowers" on Google and Google just giving you links to the whistle product, not allowing you to find the information you are looking for. But that's not how Google, or any other major search engine, works, or has worked for a very long time. So saying that's why Tesla/Elon are doing it, is quite simply false.
  - tyingq 5y ago
    Sure, I can't say why they are doing it, but it has taken up 3 slots in probably the most common query. A reputation management company would be really happy with that result. They wouldn't expect one theme to fix it all.
  - Pyramus 5y ago
    You underestimate the power of a false balance, and in a way, Elon Musk. When searching about "whistleblowing tesla" (or "whistle blowing tesla"!) there should be zero stories about the Tesla whistle. You turn facts that are 100% negative (Tesla has a big whistleblowing problem) into something that's 30% positive (or neutral). That's a PR win on a massive, almost unheard of scale. Just imagine the VW CEO doing a stunt like this to soften Dieselgate ...

tyingq 5y ago

Elon's companion tweet makes it even more obvious. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1465838829370228737 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1465838829370228737

rootusrootus 5y ago

I'm not sure if it really will work for that. But judging from the comments from Tesla fans, it's an easy way to print about $49. They could probably charge double that.

judge2020 5y ago
In fact, the second-hand market for it on Ebay has it going for 150-200 right now.