"Sponsored links" or "advertisements"?
Subtitle: measuring labeling alternatives in internet search engines
By: Benjamin Edelman, Duncan S. Gilchrist
Contributors: Gilchrist, Duncan S.; Harvard Business School
Edition: Rev.
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 11-048; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 11-048.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2010
Place of publication: [Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 18
Description: In an online experiment, we measure users' interactions with search engines, both in standard configurations and in modified versions with improved labels identifying search engine advertisements. In particular, for a random subset of users, we change "sponsored link" or "ad" labels to instead read "paid advertisement." Relative to users receiving the "sponsored link" or "ad" labels, users receiving the "paid advertisement" label click 23% and 26% fewer advertisements, respectively. Users seeing "paid advertisement" labels also correctly report that they click fewer advertisements, controlling for the number of advertisements they actually click. Results are most pronounced for commercial searches, and for users with low income, low education, and little online experience. We find no evidence that consumers find Google's new "ads" label more informative than the longstanding prior label "sponsored links."
Notes: "November 2010, revised January 2011"--Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references.