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Yahoo News Posts Advertisements as News

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sinking-to-a-new-low dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Yahoo is now putting ad banners as news stories. This is highly misleading and is an awesome way to sell out." I don't really think Yahoo has been sold in in a few years, but this is a new level of yucky. No doubt it is a sign of things to come: the news is the ad. The ad is the news. It's one step worse then the bizarre advertising/news merge that was amazingly evident when Disney/ABC was doing with Monsters Inc while Time/Warner/AOL/CNN was hyping Harry Potter. Oh, in case they change it, basically they have a list of news stories, and one of them links simply to a page advertising (not surprisingly) X-10. The link isn't marked as an ad -- its simply one of the headlines in the news list. It's one thing to have more ads... it's another to simply disguise the ad as actual news. Update The ad was yanked. For those who missed it, there were a dozen news articles, but one was an advertisement. It was indistinguishable from the actual news.

5 of 396 comments (clear)

  1. Are you sure? by SnowDog_2112 · · Score: 4, Redundant

    I noticed today that Yahoo started putting ads up that interrupt you -- i.e. you click a headline and an add page comes up, with a link to the real story -- forcing you to find the link and absorb the ad for a second.

    Is this all we're talking about, or is there something more "sinister" going on that I missed?

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    Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
  2. Huh by tswinzig · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Can someone please describe what the hell this article is talking about?

    --

    "And like that ... he's gone."
  3. How to find the perpetrating Ad... by JohnDenver · · Score: 4, Redundant

    1. Click on link...
    2. Refresh page until right side banner shows Techno Scout with links below it...

    You may notice a single word disclaimer above the banner that says, "Advertisement"

    A reasonable person should easily be able to tell the difference...

    --
    "Communism is like having one [local] phone company " - Lenny Bruce
  4. I think Slashdot was Trolled by GreyyGuy · · Score: 3, Redundant

    The only Ad links I see are on the right side of the page in an ad shaped box under text that clearly says ADVERTISEMENT.

    It think it's slimy of the advertiser, but I wouldn't blame Yahoo for it. I got caught by it once before, but since then mentally block it out.

  5. Marketing - world's 2nd oldest profession by ch-chuck · · Score: 2, Redundant

    Yup...

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    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }