No Gov. Regulation on Online Ads, Yet

Writing by Brick Marketing on Saturday, 28 of June , 2008 at 8:56 am

The government is choosing a watch-and-see approach to online advertising, deciding to stall the inevitable hands-on, for now. At Thursday’s U.S. House Small Business Committee hearing on online advertising, Google was one of the main topics of conversation, though they did not officially participate.
One of the main topics of discussion from the committee members was their concern over the recent Google/Yahoo deal, and the possibility for governmental regulation on online advertising. It is probably that the merging of such online Search Engine giants was the impetus for discussions on regulation. When any sector grows so big so fast, the need for regulation to serve as consumer and business protector is always discussed. Unchecked growth in a market with few competitors can lead to price and practice gouging, but for now the House is not instilling regulatory measures.
CickZ has quotes from many of the participants in the house discussion.

“Do we allow market forces to play out?” Gonzales wondered. “I’m a strong believer in that…up until the point that we feel that there is a disadvantage…and the consumer or the businessperson is no longer on a level playing field or treated fairly.” He also briefly expressed an interest in user tracking as it relates to ad targeting.

Now if this was about any other sector in the business world, the merging of the two dominating corporations in the field would almost assuredly bring about regulation, so why is the government still choosing to watch and see how the market will play out in all of this? Probably because the online advertising business is still considered new territory and there isn’t enough understanding of the practices to instill regulation, yet.

Category: Local Online Advertising

• Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg

No comments yet.