Consumer Reports WebWatch Issues Statement In Response To Recent FTC Warning

YONKERS, N.Y. — Consumer Reports 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 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 Reports WebWatch recently commissioned a study of Internet users that found most respondents — 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 Reports 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 Reports WebWatch is diligently working to improve the transparency of and disclosure at such sites so consumers can distinguish between objective search results and paid advertisements.

The study, performed for Consumer Reports WebWatch by independent research group Princeton Survey Research Associates (PSRA), 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:

• Consumer Reports 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 Reports 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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The Consumer Reports WebWatch mission is to investigate; inform; and improve the credibility of information on the Web. ConsumerWebWatch.org will be home to research and analysis on issues of credibility, usability and content, along with news of use to consumers navigating the Web.

Consumer Reports WebWatch is a project of Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org. The project is supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which invests in ideas that fuel timely action and results; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities; and the Open Society Institute, which encourages debate in areas in which one view of an issue dominates all others.