Sunday, March 16, 2008

The ethics of searching...

So, this week’s discussion revolves around the question confronting Internet search engines. That is, are paid and ranked advertisement links ethical if they are not listed as such?

Personally, I find this to be a no-brainer of a question. The short answer is that they are totally and completely ethical. These ads should not and do not need to be listed or segregated from the myriad of other links, simply because they are paid for. From the perspective of the non-paying site, there might be a sense of unfairness, but in business, there are always companies/ businesses that cannot afford to advertise in every location. While they may not have the resources to communicate through a particular medium, there is no one telling them that they cant.

Obviously in this instance the laws of business come into play. Additionally, the laws of supply and demand determine the market place in an e world. If consumers have a bad experience or feel inconvenienced or deceived, they always have the option to not return to that website and to not utilize those services in the future.

Ultimately the consumer is what determines if something is unethical, unfair, or falls outside the lines of fair competition. There are already laws in place that are aimed at preventing collusion, monopolization, and consumer gouging. More rules and regulation regarding the identification or placement of advertising will only move to further the restrictions that gird the boundaries of the advertising and e commerce worlds.

In most cases, persons that have no vested interest in the outcome must review issues involving ethics and deception. For e commerce marketers that can afford to be listed as the first find in a search engine query, this is a very small and annoying issue. For those marketers in this medium that cannot afford to pay for advertisement, this may seem like a mountain of an issue. Business is rarely fair, however, it is the competition within the industry that causes this to be such a hot button issue.

In think it is a dead issue that can be chalked up to the laws of consumer capitalism!

What do you think?

Matt

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