FTC Seeks Info on Search Engines
Online search engines are built to find information in seconds. But most leading sites appear to be taking their time meeting a federal request for more transparency on how money influences their display of search results.

In late June, the Federal Trade Commission said most of the Web's largest search engines don't reveal enough about the financial mechanics that increasingly give advertisers preferred treatment.

The FTC delivered its findings as a recommendation but indicated it could pursue legal action if the search engines don't build ``clear and conspicuous'' distinctions between fee-based results and those produced by objective formulas.

The agency did not set a timetable for compliance, which experts say is technically uncomplicated.

To gauge the search engines' response, The Associated Press submitted a series of random queries this week.

The spot checks found few changes had been made, even though it appears all but one of the surveyed search engines will have to make revisions to meet the FTC's guidelines.

The AP reviewed search engines at a dozen sites: Alltheweb, AOL, AltaVista, AskJeeves, Google, Hotbot, Looksmart, Lycos, MSN, Overture, Netscape and Yahoo.

Google was the only search engine that appeared to meet all the criteria laid out by regulators.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Search-Engines-Advertisers.html