J.D. Lasica (Online Journalism Review): Is the jig up for honest search results? Black is white, profit is all, and the entire Internet is filled with callow users who are either (a) so cynical that they assume all search results are bought and paid for, or (b) clueless droids
who have somehow been goaded into ignoring wonderfully useful commercial listings.
Unfortunately, this is all too correct. Such is the level of honesty, or lack thereof, in so much of American business that people do assume they’re being lied to. They do assume that search results are bought and paid for. They do assume the worst.
And, sadly, they are too often correct.
It isn’t just a tech-industry problem. In this morning’s paper is an advertisement for one of the frequent airline fare sales. That $197 trip from Boston to San Jose looks mightly alluring, until you notice that it’s “each way based on a round trip purchase” — a classic and perpetual trick of the industry in its advertising.
Think about this. It’s like advertising leather shoes for, say, $45 and then noting that this price is based on purchase of a pair.
The tech industry learned how to lie in its advertising almost from the day it started. You still see ads for monitors that claim screen diagonals that are plain false. You still see portable computer makers lie about how long their machines will last on one battery charge.
Consumers are cynical? You bet. They have ample reason.