News.com: Are search engines confusing surfers?
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.
Do commercial search engines have a public responsibility to separate sponsored advertising links from other search results? Should the FTC regulate search engines?
