Ads Tied to Web Searches Criticized as Deceptive

In June 2013, Mary Engle, the Federal Trade Commission’s associate director for advertising practices, wrote to 22 search sites, including the top three, warning of a “decline in compliance” with guidelines that search engines clearly delineate listings that are ads, and the risk of deceiving consumers. In response, the three leading US search engines have done little, making it difficult for users to distinguish ads from “natural” search results. Google stopped placing colored shading around ads, and now displays a small yellow “Ad” label next to some paid links. The shading of ads on Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing search results is nearly imperceptible; both search engines label ads with a single line of light-gray text.