FTC Tells Search Engines to Clearly Distinguish Between Ads and Search Results
FTC cracking down on a free service
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has a message for Google Inc. (GOOG), Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) and other Internet companies: make sure online ads are clearly distinguished from regular Web-search results to avoid misleading customers.
The FTC, updating recommendations in place for more than a decade, said search sites are displaying advertising more prominently on pages while doing less to highlight it. That has made it difficult for users to distinguish ads from results that aren't backed by ad dollars, the FTC said. The regulator lamented a "decline in compliance" with guidelines from 2002.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?