Consumer WebWatch Issues Statement in Response to Recent FTC Warning.Business & High Tech Editors Consumer WebWatch, a non-profit research project whose goal is to improve the credibility of online content, applauds the Federal Trade Commission's recent action requiring major Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the search engines to disclose and make clear instances in which companies have paid to be included in Web search results. Most Web users consider the order of results on a search engine page to be an objective list of sites on the Web, based on their information query. Consumer WebWatch recently commissioned a study of Internet users Internet user n → internauta m/f Internet user Internet n → internaute m/f that found most respondents In the context of marketing research, a representative sample drawn from a larger population of people from whom information is collected and used to develop or confirm marketing strategy. -- more than 60 percent of the 1,500 surveyed -- did not know some commonly used search engines are paid to list some sites more prominently than others. Even among those users surveyed with three or more years' experience using the Web, fewer than half (46 percent) were aware of the paid-result-placement practice. Further, 80 percent of survey respondents believe search engines should reveal such financial deals. Consumer WebWatch, pursuant to its mission, has been urging Internet search engines to clearly disclose paid-result-placement advertising in an effort to make the Web more credible for consumers. Consumer WebWatch is diligently dil·i·gent adj. Marked by persevering, painstaking effort. See Synonyms at busy. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin d working to improve the transparency (1) The quality of being able to see through a material. The terms transparency and translucency are often used synonymously; however, transparent would technically mean "seeing through clear glass," while translucent would mean "seeing through frosted glass." See alpha blending. of and disclosure at such sites so consumers can distinguish between objective search results and paid advertisements. The study, performed for Consumer WebWatch by independent research group Princeton Survey Research Associates (PSRA PSRA Princeton Survey Research Associates PSRA Presunrise Service Authorization PSRA Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association PSRA Patent Searching Research Archives ), surveyed U.S. Internet users age 18 and older on their impressions of news and information, and E-commerce sites. Its findings are based on 1,500 telephone interviews conducted from December 20, 2001 to January 7, 2002. Editor's Notes Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : - Consumer WebWatch is a project of Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org, and is supported by grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Open Society Institute. - Beau Brendler, director of Consumer WebWatch, is available for interview to further discuss the need for transparency among Internet search engines. - You can find the complete PSRA research report by going to www.consumerwebwatch.org - You can find additional information on the FTC's search engine action at http://www.ftc.gov |
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