Transparency would aid Internet ad growth

The chaotic growth of Internet advertising has led to one of the major factors holding it back. A study finds that lack of "transparency" is keeping a significant amount of display ads off the Net.

The depth of the concern shows up in this comment by Jonathan Margulies, a director of the Winterberry Group, which sponsored the study: "It's critical that advertisers and agencies understand the extent to which certain issues -- the possibility that ad will appear next to content that could potentially undermine its message, for example -- continue to present real threats."

The problems appear to be that advertisers can't control where their ads may be placed (the old airline ad next to a plane crash story, for example) and, even worse, placement next to inappropriate subject matter or ads appearing on pages that "defy" "taste, respect and basic courtesy."