Paid Inclusion: The advertising issue for search engines is not going away. Associated Press checked how well search engines are complying with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's recommendations for disclosure and found some wanting. Paid placements are relatively easy to identify. The FTC had recommended these be identified as "sponsored links" or "sponsored search listings". Paid inclusion - ie payment by a company to have their web site frequently and deeply indexed - is tougher and search engines would prefer not.
Search engines slow on disclosure (July 11, 2002) AP in MSNBC news.
Ask Jeeves has enhanced its paid inclusion service - Direct Search Inclusion (DSI) - through a partnership with TrafficLeader to add Index Express. This service will guarantee inclusion in the Teoma index. The customer pays when pages are viewed but the pages are not given ranking preference. With the Direct Search Inclusion service, customers may also make changes to content.
TrafficLeader Partners With Ask Jeeves to Offer Index Express Service (July 8, 2002) PRNewswire at RealMarket.com