SEL: Search Engines Still Failing to Disclose Paid Ads

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Search marketing in the new media era.

June 10, 2005

Search Engines Still Failing to Disclose Paid Ads

ClickZ has details of a report release by Consumer Reports WebWatch which claims search engines are still not doing enough to identify sponsored search results.

Of the top search engines, AOL Search, Google, and Yahoo! Search Marketing were given good marks for disclosure, but showed minimal change over the year before. Ask Jeeves and Yahoo! Search were downgraded for making headings less visible, and removing hyperlinks to disclosure statements. MSN Search was the only major search engine to show improvement, largely because MSN discontinued its paid inclusion and content promotion programs, giving them less to disclose.

Of course, Consumer Reports would say the search engines aren't doing enough - they have to be the watchdog of the industry - but I say the search engines are doing a lot better than they used to. Besides, why not take the disclaimers to the next level? Why not label all those links that use Yahoo's Site Match Exchange and what about those companies that are using an SEO firm, should we label those too? ;-)

Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

...the search industry queries new media