Yahoo And Google To Drop Gambling Advertising

Internet search giants Yahoo! and Google have announced plans to drop advertisements for gambling and betting services from their websites in an attempt to curb their effects on underage users.

It is understood that the move will initially only affect Yahoo and Google websites in the US, although it is expected that the ban will quickly spread to encompass UK specific search engines.

The search engines are both expected to honour current advertising contracts and will allow campaigns for gambling services to peter out over the next month. A spokesperson for Google UK said: “This change was made as a part of Google’s ongoing commitment to enhancing our advertising policies to ensure that we provide the best search and advertising experience to our users.”

Yahoo! was unavailable for comment today,but it is expected that the company’s subsidiaries, including Overture, which provides search listings to several third parties, will also be covered by the ban.

The move follows a decision by Ask Jeeves, the UK’s third largest search engine, to remove all banner advertising from its website in an attempt to improve user loyalty and satisfaction. Until recently banners were the most widely used advertising format on the Ask Jeeves website. However, the search engine claims they are turning users away and plans to phase them out by the end of the year (see Ask Jeeves Ditches Banners From UK Website).

Earlier this year MSN made the surprise decision to drop all pop-up advertising from its internet portal, citing customer dissatisfaction as the main motive (see MSN Bans Pop-Up Advertising Across Entire Network).

Google: 020 7031 3000 www.google.co.uk Yahoo!: 020 7808 4200 www.yahoo.co.uk

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