Advertising and Marketing on the Internet: Rules of the Road
FTC rules and guidelines to protect businesses and consumers and help maintain the credibility of the Internet as an advertising medium
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/ruleroad.htm
Black Hat SEO
Worst practices, software and gimmicks to avoid.
http://www.blackhatseo.com/
CommercialAlert Complaint to the FTC
Details CommercialAlert's 2001 complaint of deceptive advertising in search results, and the FTC's ruling from 2002.
http://www.commercialalert.org/index.php?category_id=1&subcategory_id=24&article_id=113
Customer's Guide to Ethical Search Engine Optimisation
A series of articles that help discern ethical search engine optimisation services from unethical ones. Advice on how to deal with unethical providers and how to reduce the risk of investing in such services is also included.
http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/search_engine_information/customer_guide/
Email Marketing Ethics and Spam Reporting
Guide to avoiding being spammed and sending e-mail without spamming.
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/EmailMarketingEthicsSpamReporting.htm
FTC Halts Internet Pagejacking Scam
Documents how the FTC stopped a scheme to mislead consumers to porn sites via search engines. First time a government agency asserted regulatory authority over search engine listings.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/09/atariz.htm
Nigritude Ultramarine FAQ
Originally created for an SEO contest, this FAQ answers a wide range of questions about search engine optimization with a focus on the ethics of various SEO techniques.
http://www.nigritudeultramarines.com/
ScreenSpam.org
Effort to discourage companies from using across-the-screen 'rich media' advertisements.
http://www.screenspam.org/
Search Engine Disclosure Ratings: May 2003
Reviews major search engines to see if disclosures of paid content are clear and conspicuous.
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2214891
Search Engines: Economics & Ethics
Talks about the difficulties in getting listed in a search engine and search engine ethics implications.
http://www.saintlouisflamenco.com/webmaster/searchengines.htm
The Classification of Search Engine Spam
Offers a guide to search engine spam that allows search engine marketers to objectively evaluate actions to see whether those actions equate to spamming a search engine. Aims to provide the basis of an industry standard.
http://www.silverdisc.co.uk/articles/spam-classification/