Consumer Watchdog Urges a Closer Look at PFI

[martinibuster]

"...at the moment, that's in line with what the FTC has said -- that paid inclusion doesn't need to be segregated if there's no boosting happening," he said. "I'd suspect if they were to look at it, and saw that boosting was there, they'd want it to be separated."

When asked whether Yahoo should give the public notice that some Web search results are paid for by the click, (Yahoo spokesperson) Lee said "as long as consumers are getting what they want, that's all that matters."

From CNET News.com [zdnet.co.uk]

Uh-oh, the cat's out of the bag.

[skibum]

Nice to see Danny speak out on it. IMO, they ought to have to put a dollar sign next to or highlight those listings that pay by the click.

[rfgdxm1]

Unfortunately, a lot of search engines are run by some very sleazy snakes. Yahoo seems particularly bad. :( Even Google is getting that way with them putting Adwords at the top of the page that are barely distinguishable as ads. Unlike the Adwords to the right, that can't be confused.

[mayor]

I think paid inclusion is a way to pull the wool over the bureacrats' eyes. Paid inclusion implies upaid exclusion.

Now who's going to rank higher ... the paid included site or the unpaid excluded site?

[keeper]

I've been waiting for the FTC to latch on to PI.

I think its inevitable that they will need to be marked up as "sponsored" and I'm dying to see how it effects click through rates.