Netizens hate paid ads with search results

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Internet users in India do not like advertisements mixed with search results and found paid links less useful in regard to the information they were looking for, a study said Wednesday.

"Paid advertising getting interspersed with natural search results is not quite what users want," said the study conducted by the CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition (CIRC).

The study which was conducted in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Jaipur among 500 respondents also said that almost one-third of the respondents surveyed clicked on the top ads, which accrue revenues for the search engine.

Nearly half the respondents stated they would never or hardly ever click on search results that they knew were ads. While more than two-thirds of respondents felt that natural search results are more useful than ads.

While a negligible one percent clicked on the side ad bar on the search results page.

The survey also said that top ads appeared on 90 per cent of search result pages adding that more than half of the respondents were unable to identify the top ad bar correctly.

About 31 percent of respondents were unaware that search engines also promote their own content alongside other websites and services. Almost half of them did not prefer search engines doing so.

"The unattended issues emanating from the online markets, which affect consumers and small and medium enterprises alike, required primary research. This survey is a product of this demand," said Navneet Sharma, director, CUTS Institute of Regulation and Competition