Comments on: Is Cloaking Deceptive Advertising?

By: Mike B

Mike B — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 19:00:26 +0000

Hey, check this out.

http://www.milliondollaroreuropage.com

By: Jason Fried

Jason Fried — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Comments from SitePoint readers are welcome, and I'll watch this space for further discussion.

It's a blog, of course someone is going to comment!

By: NotThatBright

NotThatBright — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Ironic timing considering the recent debacle with wordpress. I blogged a response at NotThatBright.net. I think it is a deceptive practice by advertisers, although do not see how the impact is much worse than a deeply buried but accessible set of pages with a forewarning: Advertiser Spam Lurks Here.

It really doesn't save for Google's TOS.

By: georgina

georgina — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

“Search engines should clearly disclose that some of their organic listings may be there as the result of deception or manipulation by search engine marketers.”

Who *doesn’t* expect to see spam results when they use a search engine? I would anticipate that most people tend to see the Web (a largely user-driven medium) as less “reliable” or “responsible” than, for e.g., TV or other “passive” media, which are often perceived to be heavily editorially controlled.

I think that people in “Web-search mode” are more cautious and wary than those in “TV-watching mode”, where we tend to believe what we see simply because it’s presented by a percevied “authority” (the TV), and we believe that there’s censorship and content review by real, live humans (!).

I doubt if a search engine will ever enjoy that level of credibility. I wonder if the threat of false advertising litigation would discourage search engine spammers. I wonder what difference a spam warning on a SERP would make to my search experience.

By: DanThies

DanThies — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

[QUOTE=georgina]Who *doesn’t* expect to see spam results when they use a search engine? I would anticipate that most people tend to see the Web (a largely user-driven medium) as less “reliable” or “responsible” than, for e.g., TV or other “passive” media, which are often perceived to be heavily editorially controlled.[/QUOTE]
Actually, most search engine users have no clue about what they’re seeing, as was found in the CommercialAlert case.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Google is creating some of its own problems via its AdSense program.

Marketers are encouraged to embed AdSense ads in their websites.

Marketers have determined that some of the best conversion for AdSense clicks is by making the links look like part of the "content" of the page.

...Then use SEO tactics to get those AdSense content pages listed high on search results.

Thus...

Users search for "Siberian Husky pet supplies" and 8 of the top 10 results are nothing more than "manufactured" AdSense content pages.

Just my $.02.

By: DanThies

DanThies — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

[QUOTE=Scott]Google is creating some of its own problems via its AdSense program.[/QUOTE]
I agree. Although it doesn’t really drive cloaking, all these applications that are designed to create machine-generated “keyword driftnets” would not exist if it weren’t for Adsense. Google has made it a lot easier to profit from producing junk like that.