Fed's going after Google, Overture...for paid placements
 

Search sites work to clean up their act

http://msnbc-cnet.com.com/2100-1023-...&subj=cnetnews

I advertise on google,
Yes you can buy the high position.
It isn't included in the list of search results but off to the right hand side of the page...

lol, this US government is fucked up

Youdont buy "search rank" you buy a sponsor slot.

Wait, aside from the right hand side CPM buy you can make there, didn't they also start a CPC deal exactly like Overture for higher placement in the main results area?

Companies named in the complaint were AltaVista, AOL Time Warner, Direct Hit Technologies (owned by Ask Jeeves), iWon, LookSmart, Microsoft and Terra Lycos.

A copy of the recent FTC letter was also sent to Overture, Yahoo, InfoSpace, About.com, Google and Disney -because they are selling the listings.

I think the idea of a free SE is flat out stupid, they ALL should be pay per click and will be one day...Because this is business and only those making money will survive...:Graucho

I suppose you only shop at Wal-Mart. The U.S. Govt realizes that small business is what makes our economy thrive, you take away the small businesses ability to make money on the net & you destroy the net. So i will have to disagree with you :winkwink:

The letter was not sent to google as a complaint. In fact the COMPLAINING party said GOOD THINGS ABOUT GOOGLE:

"Google, specifically noted as an exception in the Commercial Alert complaint, stands out in this story"

http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb020708-2.htm

Notice that commercial alert is the company mentioned in both articles.

states turning into china now or something?

Free stuff is what makes the internet cool.

Bid ranking blows and anyone who uses search engines know.

People use google for a reason, they know idiots pay to get listed on others.

Google will never be bid placement, you can buy your adwords etc but Google will never be ranked that way/

:glugglug

No, that will be bad and will never happen. Free search engines are good. Maybe you're too old, but schools use search engines all the time for research and information for reports and presentations. Almost 90% of the time, the best information and best search results yield sites that are not business backed. Some kid decided to post all of his knowledge on baseball cards, you can't expect this kid to pay for a search listing when other people really want his information.

They will not all be pay per click...

Another reason pay per click isn't always good: people exploit it! A pay per click engine is all backed by big money eating up many keywords, even those that aren't relevant. How do you expect people to find relevant sites and information for what they want? They wouldn't, then someone would create a "free" search engine to fill surfers needs.

It's not a big deal to me but I have to agree that it's hard to search for anything these days and actually find what you are looking for. I think thats why google does so well. It's one of the few search engines where you can actually find what you are looking for. This warning to the SEs is about truth in advertising and theres nothing wrong with making companies tell the truth.

From the article

"Many of these search engines have near zero editorial integrity," Ruskin said. "If (listings) are for sale, the public ought to know; then they are not search engines but ad delivery mechanisms."
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It makes sense to me. If you advertise yourself as an unbiased catalog of web sites, and then return paid listings and dupe the surfer into thinking that those results are the most relevant, then that's misleading.

It seems that the only real change that's going to be made is that they won't be allowed to call the paid listings "featured sites" anymore, they'll now have to be called "sponsored links"

There will always be free Search Engines. (thats why google became the most used SE)








oh yeah, fuck Alta Vista :321GFY

I'll second that. But.. then again, they probably helped google become #1 by selling all their adult traffic to nightsurf :winkwink:

Its funny that Alta Vista was so popular then they shot themself in the foot. They could have been as profitable as google by not changing at all.

I remember like 2 1/2 years ago alta vista was the one to be on. They were banning domains and doing all kinds of crazy shit. They aren' shit anymore.

Pay per click is fucking lame. Not every website is out to make a profit. Shit, most are fan pages or pages created for fun.
If I search for something the last thing in the world I want is just business sites.

My respect goes out to google for not being a damn sellout.

Why, is the Chinese government big on preventing businesses there from misleading consumers?

This case is not, from what I understand, about preventing people from making or running PPC engines. It is simply about honesty in advertising. Search engines, like any other U.S. businesses, are not allowed to mislead consumers about the service that they are offering.

Imagine if the FTC decided to go after adult paysites for bogus advertising in tour pages. Most pay sites I've ever seen the inside of would either be shut down or fined severely. :)

i think each se should be free to decide itself... it's clear to me, though, that the free ones will survive... where was google some years ago, i remember av, lycos, excite, some other shit.... they all copied each other turning into portals and shit, but fuck. who uses them???

google wont make stupid changes, i am sure about that.

Good, everyone should have a chance at getting listed fairly.

Notice after 9/11 our economy got fucked, now the feds are cracking down on these cheaters? Makes you wonder...