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Search Engines Do Not Do Enough To Fight Deceitful Ads

Ben Edelman, a spyware researcher, has published a pay-per-click advertising report saying that major search engines such as Google run misleading ads, which "push and exceed the limits of ethical and legal advertising." In the report it was also said that they are not the ones that are responsible for issuing such ads. Edelman says in his report: "Google, as a provider of an interactive computer service, may not be treated as the publisher of content others provide through that service."

Google, in turn, states that all the possible measures are being taken in order to fight the acts of deceiving advertising. Google`s spokesperson explained that when Google staff finds a misleading ad, it removes it immediately. Google has special AdWords Editorial Guidelines, according to which a price, special discount, or `free offer,` included in an ad must be displayed clearly and accurately on the advertiser`s website within 1-2 clicks of the ad`s landing page.

Google promised to check again the ads that were listed in the recent report and to remove those that do not meet the needed Google`s requirements. Google`s AdWords Content Policy lists in details all the types of ads that are forbidden, for example drugs, prostitution and pitches for spamming services. Edelman, however, still believes Google could do much more that it is doing now in order to prevent scammers from advertising.