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Are search engines confusing surfers?

October 29, 2003 |

The FTC remains concerned that consumers may not be able to tell when search results are advertiser-sponsored, thanks to sometimes-unclear disclosure.

Last year, the FTC notified Web operators--including Yahoo-owned AltaVista and America Online--that they must clearly mark advertisements that appear within their search results. Though some reform trickled through the industry, questions still linger about how well companies label the commercial listings that appear when Web surfers delve into their indices.

The U.S. regulatory agency said that so far, it’s pleased with efforts to disclose ads as “sponsored” when they appear on top or adjacent to query results. But a more-complex form of paying for exposure within search results--called paid inclusion--remains worrisome for consumer watchdogs and the FTC.

Paid inclusion is a class of search marketing in which companies, such as Yahoo-owned Inktomi, accept fees to “crawl” Web sites more often so that fresh product data is included in the index. In Inktomi’s case, some marketers pay when Web surfers click on their listings. Typically, those paid-for links are not marked.

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