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Comment by mattmanser | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how long it will take them to get slapped by someone though? In the UK papers have to clearly identify adverts if presented in an editorial format. Why do google get away with presenting adverts as search results without clearly identifying them?

A greyed out 'sponsored link' in the right hand corner is just pathetic, I bet most users don't even understand what that means.

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That's how US papers identify advertisements, too. Fortune has a multi-page article on how effective corporate jets are (it actually has about as much data and case studies as a typical Fortune article), and that piece has a modest "Special advertising section" header.

However, organic and natural results are both the result of spending money and effort; the only difference is the that you can get high organic results without much money, if you have a lot of time.

Do you remember what Web 1.0 was like before Google? Search engines would often mix sponsored links into their results with no indication at all that the link had paid for their placement. Google at least puts them in a separate section of the page, labeled.

Google wasn't the first to do that.

It might take a while before Google get negative wide spread reaction or loose of revenue just due their reputation build over the years and innovative drive. However, in competitive market and emerge of hungry start ups looking for new business it might come as an opportunity for others

Not sure why this was downvoted, good point I think

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