Commercial Alert, a US-based group that campaigns against
commercial exploitation, has filed a deceptive advertising
complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against eight search
engines, for placing ads in search engine results without clear
disclosure that the ads are ads.
The complaint states that such listings "look like information
from an objective database selected by an objective algorithm. But
really they are paid ads in disguise."
Companies named in the complaint include AltaVista, AOL Time
Warner, Direct Hit Technologies, iWon, LookSmart, Microsoft and
Terra Lycos.
"These search engines have chosen crass commercialism over
editorial integrity," said Gary Ruskin, executive director of
Commercial Alert. "We are asking the FTC to make sure that no one
is tricked by the search engines' descent into commercial
deception," he added. "If they are going to stuff ads into search
results, they should be required to say that the ads are ads."
The complaint praises search engine Google for clearly stating
and for not putting “paid ads within its search results”.
The FTC has yet to rule on the complaint, filed last month.
