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Search Engines Ignore Ad Disclosure Recommendations

The effect was not unlike spitting into the ocean. After a series of studies looking into search engines' paid inclusion and paid placement disclosure practices and a string of FTC recommendations, a follow-up study shows that little has been done. Continue below

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Last November, Consumer Reports WebWatch released a study entitled," Searching For Disclosure: How Search Engines Alert Consumers to the Presence of Advertising in Search Results."

Along with the study came recommendations from the Federal Trade Commission about making a clear distinction between organic search results and paid listings.

At a conference in Berkeley, CA, Beau Brendler, director of WebWatch, and Jorgan Wouters, the study's author, presented a follow-up investigation to see if search engines had responded. Only a few, it turns out, have made any improvements. The rest have done nothing or have gotten worse, according to the report.

"Unfortunately for consumers, many changes made by search engines were for the worse," said Beau Brendler said after follow-up study "Still In Search of Disclosure."

"In fact, while some meta-search engines improved their disclosure practices, some of the best search engines have become worse. Search engines are gambling with their reputations, their credibility and their customers if they continue this way."

Here are the key findings of the study:

· With only three exceptions (Yahoo, AOL and Lycos), all search engines tested used tiny and faint fonts - such as light gray - for hyperlinks to disclosure pages.

· Many disclosure statements about paid placement and paid inclusion were unclear, written in legalese and almost seemed to discourage reading.

· Criticized a year ago for their collective lack of disclosure, meta-search engines have largely improved. Two engines tested (CNET's Search.com and Web Search) have substantially enhanced their disclosure of both paid placement and paid inclusion, although one, InfoSpace, has become worse.

· Since the release of the November 2004 study, two of the top five most-trafficked engines - MSN and Ask Jeeves - have removed paid inclusion advertising. However, among the other nine engines that use paid inclusion, the practice is rarely disclosed.

· Having never used paid inclusion, Google clearly labels and separates sponsored links from search results, although links to disclosure statements are difficult to find.

"Our previous studies have shown that 60 percent of consumers surveyed did not know that search engine results included paid advertisements along with non-paid results, and when they found out the truth, they were angry," said Jørgen Wouters.

"Search engines need to understand that these practices and omissions, when exposed, matter to consumers - their customers."

Consumer Reports WebWatch, a project of Consumers Union, is a non-profit investigative project that monitors trust and credibility in the online marketplace. WebWatch's investigative reports, articles and news are available at http://www.consumerwebwatch.org.

About the Author:

Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.