It didn't look like an advertisement.
A recent study by the people at the Pew Internet &
American Life Project reports that most of the online population reports that
they are confident that they know how to conduct web searches, and that most of
the time they are satisfied with the results that they receive from these searches.
On the other hand, in this same study, a significant percentage of users report
that they can't distinguish between a "real" search result and a sponsored
ad, or don't know that such a difference exists. And that suggests that if someone
runs a search for "global warming" on AltaVista, they'll probably get
as a first result the Terminus En web
site - a site devoted to (to my mind, at least) rather esoteric discussions of
the end of days and the signs (like global warming) that tell us that this end
is quickly approaching. Though I can envision someone who reaches this site scratching
his or her head and asking "how did I end up here?", it a fair guess
that he or she would rather readily realize that the site doesn't exactly deal
with global warming from a scientific, or even semi-scientific, perspective.
Go to: Equal in the eyes of cyberspace.