Google has changed the look of search engine advertising. Now it is not very different from the rest of results issue
But formally the company does not violate anything.
Google released an update to the web version of the search engine, in which it made advertisements in the display less distinguishable. Now, the only difference from the rest of the search results is the black and white postscript “advertisement”. This was noticed on Twitter by The Guardian editor Alex Horn.
As The Guardian journalist noted, formally the company marks ads, which means it does not violate the laws, but visually it becomes more difficult to notice it. According to preliminary data from Digiday, interface changes will force users to click on ads more often.
Before the update, Google also marked the advertisement with the corresponding postscript, but at the same time highlighted it with a square. In addition, the mark was green.
In Russian, the company signs ads with the word “advertisement”, but in English uses the abbreviated “Ad”. This makes foreign advertising even less noticeable.
Along with changing the display of advertising, the company added website icons to the search results. This decision was explained by the desire to clarify the issue of reliability of information sources.
