About OrganicSpam

Are we against Search Engines?

We are not against Search Engines and don't oppose their right to make money through an honest approach. Dominance in Web Search gives the prominent Search Engines an important responsibility to maintain fair access to as many sites as possible.

The trouble is that these search engines have gone to great lengths to fuzz the line between editorial and commercial listings i.e. there is a breach of the editorial-advertising line trust.

As a commercial Search Engine which is entirely dependent upon the sites that is owned by the public and uses Public Property in its results and business model, it has to take an additional responsibility to safeguard the interests of the public websites as well. Or these Search Engines can stop showing the public websites in its results to generate traffic and shift to an all commercial zone i.e. a Pay per Click Search Engine like www.overture.com.

It would be better if these Search engines that depend upon free editorial listings and are able to attract huge traffic due to this business model turn into full commercial search engines rather than using the free public pages for their own benefit. They can be the Yellow Pages of the Web.

Back in 2001, the Federal Trade Commission sent the first letters to search engines requiring the disclosure of paid ads within search results at the behest of a consumer interest group. Since then, we have seen many reports crying foul on paid listing disclosure. These reports tell that Search results should be free to become unbiased oracles of information. Despite disclosures of paid ads, labels like "sponsored results" don't convey clear picture to the visitors.

If what the Search Engines claim is true, then why aren't they straight with the users and reveal that their ads are ads? Why don't they use the word "Paid Advertisement" instead of "Sponsored results"? Why don't they use "Red" or any other bold color for highlighting ""Sponsored Results" rather than using light shades of grey to avoid lesser clicks as the visitors would clearly know and understand that these ads have been paid for?

We are not saying advertising is bad. It's all just about being upfront and being clear and adhering to the guidelines suggested by the Federal Trade Commission. This site is developed to spread the word on the issues mentioned above and we want the organic search results to be unbiased, free of spam results. Our message is strong and clear - "Don't deceive the web community."