Nearly two-thirds of people who use Internet search engines do not realise some of the results that come up are sponsored.

A total of 62 percent were unaware that an individual or company may have paid for listings that appear on screen when they type in a word.

“The finding is ironic, since half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought they were not being clear about how they presented paid results,” a report by the US Pew Research Centre said.

Study author Dr Deborah Fallows said people trusted search engines as much as government agencies, doctors and academics but were naïve about sponsored web listings.

“People know little about how engines operate or about the financial tensions that play into how engines perform their searches,” she added.

Only 18 percent of searchers said they could tell the difference between sponsored and organic results.

Tony Macklin, from Ask Jeeves, said paid-for results should be clearly marked as people need to be able to spot the difference.

The report also revealed that 84 percent of Internet users regularly use Google, Ask Jeeves, MSN and Yahoo with Google the most popular.

The average user spends about 43 minutes per month, carrying out 34 separate searches.

A third of people claimed they could not live without search engines but half said they could get the same information elsewhere.

Nearly half use the same search engine all the time.

Article from METRO Tuesday 25th January, 2005