Yahoo Updates Sponsored Ads – Still Weak Notice

Last week I wrote about Yahoo selling it’s results without telling its users that the links are paid. It does appear that there is a brief note if you click through to the about page (who would do this?). I think selling the results is a great idea but I believe Yahoo has a fiduciary duty to tell its users about the links. They recently changed the language over the past few days from:

• "Yahoo! Shortcut"

to:

• "Yahoo! Sponsored Shortcut"

While I applaud them for adding the word "Sponsored" I still believe they need to do more to demonstrate to the casual user that it is an advertisement. Check out the search for Special K for an example. The words "Yahoo! Sponsored Shortcut" appear below a list of links that are set apart from the other part of the ad and make it seem as if the links are the sponsored shortcut.

It would be great to hear from the Yahoo product manager who approved this type of ad. Makes me feel like Yahoo is desperate and what they don’t need right now is questionable ad practices. More from Scott and Danny.