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THE BATTALION
Page 5B
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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