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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2001)
RIDGE, i nish man c; i tWO gAcfefi '0\ual batte iain that m to recci eatmcnt at a. 1‘iiderv i Bvler, f m initial!) ith 11 coin ross sexual - ing two girl; imi y. The'.. e time. bee n xched.i at this weft pleaded o lesser c: ; of sexual h: se marked. Amish : .ecuted in i runty pros itner said, f the difftc. as that the { felt like able to dei n their d. aid. attorney' said her able to c his religion center, vk required to ere to goto shave his n garb that h kill Nortf who helps II needs to! it. sault; Line and ording to icriffs dels alerted by I ghhors ne of the cl THE BATTALION Page 5B bevo BATTLE AL WEAR ROUGH WITH ; groom) Search engines scam Internet users f■ ■jbe Internet, armed 11 with the promise of JL limitless information ||| and boundless possibili- les, continues to gain ^importance and credibility ' as it is incorporated into GEORGE DEUTSCH people’s daily lives. But H'ith this increased use and Bopularity comes an equally nts it 696- 5 T m P ortant responsibility — someone must Brovide Internet users with objective access —\\ to the large amount of information available t to HasM' on t | ie a ro | e t | ia t ultimately falls on ——^the shoulders of search engines. As important as this role is, many earch engines have recently been dis- ustingly dishonest and deceitful with 'consumers by giving higher returns to Websites that pay search engine owners in 'car ^advance. The industry refers to this prac- Jticc as “pm<J inclusion.” all sen one j s denying search engines their light to advertise. Banner ads and the like lave become another integral part of the Inline landscape. I But in the aftermath of the dot-com crash, Banner ads and other forms of advertisement j\d iidik have unfortunately lost much of their initial ■ffectiveness. For the most part, obvious ads ■et passed over or simply glanced at and for- lotten by ad-weary consumers. I Then someone had a grand idea — pres- nt a paid advertisement under the pretense lat it is not an ad at all, and what better :es ire me vehicle for this deception than the oh-so- popular search engine. So certain e-compa- nies and Websites paid various search engines so that searches would yield results based more on payment than relevance to what was entered in the search. By and large, Internet users are not stu pid. Several consumer-interest groups have taken notice and are now crying foul. Ralph Nader’s watchdog group. Commercial Alert, has become the first group to issue a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding paid inclu- Many search engines have recently been disgustingly dishonest and deceitful. sion on eight search engines. These include the popular engines Alta Vista, LookSmart, Lycos and Ask Jeeves, and others. Based on previous FTC decisions, the search engines in question will likely be forced to drop the practice of paid inclu sion, or at least identify them as ads. Citing a federal prohibition against deceptive acts and practices, the FTC has already brought cases against various infomercial producers for their deceptive advertisements. The real problem that groups like Commercial Alert have with these search engines is not their crass commercialism and need to advertise, but instead their intentional misrepresentation of these advertisements. This misrepresentation is, of course, done entirely on purpose. As Christopher Todd, an analyst for Forrester Research, said, “You don’t want users to come to your site thinking the information is being weighted by whoever pays the highest price tag.” Ultimately, this deception can impact any purchases online shoppers may make. Though this is the obvious purpose of paid placement, it does not make the practice any more ethically or morally sound. The true purpose of search engines should be to search. They should not be reduced to mere advertising puppets of big business. An alternative to these questionable search engines might want to look into is to simply identify paid advertising as such. The popular search engine Google plainly identi fies paid placement Websites as “Sponsored Links,” because, as Google representative Cindy McCaffrey said, “Our search results represent our editorial integrity.” Regardless of the way these search engines choose to handle the situation, with the FTC breathing down their collective necks, they will likely be forced into action soon. As Commercial Alert spokesperson Gary Ruskin said, “Advertising is creeping into every nook and cranny of our lives and culture. Americans are tired of it, and the backlash is growing.” George Deutsch is a senior journalism major. Fort Worth's Molly is no threat to UT’s Bevo M olly the Cow, the official symbol of the city of Fort Worth, has found trouble with the University of Texas (UT) at Austin for appearing — too burnt orange. The city called “Cowtown” seems to have gone wrong in celebrat ing its heritage. In recent weeks. Fort Worth has come under fire from the University of Texas and its supporters who feel that Molly, the city’s brown cow logo, bears too close a resem blance to Bevo, the burnt orange mascot from the UT. UT claims that last football season, people started confusing the two logos, prompting a discussion between the University of Texas’s trademark lawyer and the city of Fort Worth. The result of this confusion is an agreement between the two sides that Molly will never appear without the words “Fort Worth” above her brown horns. Fort Worth maintains that the most important distinction between the two logos, besides the noticeable difference in shape and design, is the color. Molly has a deep brown hue, historically significant for the color of the city’s old, brick streets, and Bevo is burnt orange, UT’s trademark. Fort Worth acknowledges that in the latest round of Molly printings on coffee mugs and city letterheads, the color appears more orange. But this was never the intent of her design. Color dispute aside. Fort Worth has a right to this logo as much as any school, city or state in this country. UT is out of line in its attacks on Molly, and their revenue-driven interests overlook the symbolism and heritage the longhorn represents for the city of Fort Worth. The longhorn has been an unofficial symbol for Fort Worth and Texas for many years. The tradition dates back to the 1870s and the beginning of the stockyards, cattle drives and the Chisholm Trail. The history of Fort Worth has been called the history of the American southwest, and, in the words of Will Rogers, Fort Worth is “where the West begins.” After the Civil War and as Fort Worth began to grow into more than a frontier outpost, the city became a hub for the cattle business. Cowboys and cattle buyers gathered there to trade, and Fort Worth became the starting point for a trail that drove longhorn cattle into Kansas. Fort Worth has been the primary slaughtering, packing and shipping center for livestock in Texas since the historic stockyards were built in the early 20th century. Molly was formally adopted two years ago in an effort to preserve the city’s rich history in the cattle business. The university has approached this from a fiscal standpoint, and Gordon Appleman, a UT alumnus and attorney working on the case, has said, “The university realizes a lot of rev enue off the marketing of the longhorn. The University„of Texas has patents, trademarks. And when you know something is similar, you need to protect it.” The longhorn has been the unofficial symbol for the university since 1914, and they are completely just in protecting their interest, but only if that inter est is truly threatened. No one has committed trade mark violations and there simply has been a misprint that caused Molly to appear a little too orange. As for the UT, Jim Lane, a Fort Worth council man who represents the Fort Worth Stockyards, said, “Those people don’t know the difference between a steer and a cow.” As it appears, this is true. The University of Texas should not be concerned about Molly the cow and her discoloration. The university should look past trademarks and patents and attempt to respect the heritage of a city that may be the reason they were able to choose the longhorn for their mascot. After all, without Fort Worth, where would Bevo be? Kelln Zimmer is a junior English major. CARTOON OF THE DAY The featured cartoon characters were not subjected to the evils of drug use during this comedic display TVfe RtooNxsf-<?b
