THE Advertising Standards Authority yesterday “instructed” Wanadoo — formerly Freeserve — to make clear that some of the search results on its website are paid-for adverts, after a complaint from a consumer.
In a ruling, the advertising watchdog cautioned that sponsored links on the Freeserve site, which has since been rebranded as Wanadoo, were not clearly identifiable and that customers could, therefore, be misled.
It ordered the company to ensure that in future all advertising on the search engine was adequately marked.
A complaint had been made about Freeserve’s behaviour by Andrew Ellam, managing director of a web design company, 2-Minute-Website.com.
Mr Ellam, who has created as many as 25,000 websites for small businesses, individuals and charities, said his customers were being pushed to the back of the queue by paid-for advertising.
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“Consumers are likely to be fooled into thinking these adverts are unbiased search results, and small businesses who should appear in the listings are suffering,” Mr Ellam said.
Wanadoo said yesterday that it had read the ASA finding “with interest”, but declined to make any further comment at this stage.
Mr Ellam wants the ASA to investigate a number of other British search engine companies, which he declined to name.
In America the US Federal Trade Commission issued guidelines more than two years ago saying that “clear and conspicuous disclosures” would put consumers in a better position to judge the importance of paid-for advertising in their choice of search engines.
Companies such as Google and Ask Jeeves, make such a distinction, Mr Ellam noted.
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The ASA does not appear to be planning general guidelines at this stage.
It regards its comments about Freeserve as applying to the entire industry and expects other search engine companies to take note.
The ASA could issue general guidelines at a later stage.