Google Share Price: FTC Warns Search Giant over Advert Labelling

iNVEZZ.com, Wednesday, June 26: The Federal Trade Commission has warned search engines operating in the US, including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.’s Bing, that they should “clearly and prominently” distinguish “natural” results from advertising displayed on the search pages.

According to the Commission, established to protect US consumers’ interests, some companies have begun to mix the two over the past decade. In addition to the three biggest US search engines the FTC has sent the warning letter to AOL, Blekko, DuckDuckGo and 17 other peers.
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The regulator has found that many users experience problems when it comes to distinguishing natural results from adverts. It pointed to a survey where nearly half of searchers mistakenly said that the background shading for ads was white.
The Commission also said that general search engines which offer specialised services where companies pay to appear should make it clear that they are effectively advertising – and that failing to label them as such would constitute “deceptive practice”.

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In response to the warning Google Inc. said that clear labelling and disclosure of paid results were important and that it had always “strived to do that as our products have evolved”.
Google is the biggest search engine in the US. It absorbed 73.8 percent of the money spent on search advertising last year, according to eMarketer.
**The Google share price was $871.90 as of 15.15 GMT, 26.06.2013**
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