NEWS Search giant Google said it will no longer allow unlicensed drug dealers to buy advertisements on its website, following similar moves by rivals Microsoft and Yahoo!.
Google spokesman David Krane on Monday said the company plans to phase out advertisements from organisations who appear to bypass US federal government drug regulations to sell prescription medications on the web.
The search giant said it will hire an outside consultant to begin sorting through its customers to identify which advertisers are no longer welcome.
Krane wrote in an email: "We are planning on verifying sensitive pharmaceutical ads using a third party to ensure compliance with our policies. We believe these changes will help both our users and advertisers by ensuring consumer choice and quality in online pharmacies."
Over the past couple of years, hundreds of unlicensed pharmacies have gone into business online, selling prescription drugs such as the painkillers Vicodin and OxyContin to consumers without prescription.
Last month, Overture Services, the commercial search subsidiary of Yahoo!, announced that it had placed the last of its advertisements related to online pharmacies or pharmaceutical drug sales. Microsoft's MSN portal, one of Overture's biggest partners, also said it wanted the ads removed from its site. MSN licences commercial search results from Overture.
Matt Hines and Stefanie Olsen write for News.com
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1. micki storto o'reilly
you know what's sad?? the u.s. pharmacies cost more than going to the corner drug store. however, the doctor's are under such scrutiny by the govt. that they won't treat any condition requiring what is so kindly referred to as a controlled substance. the on-line prices are usually prohibitive to kids trying to make a buck, and i challange anyone to try to "catch a buzz" on any of these dangereous drugs, which have less side effects than most OTC and uncontrolled drugs. i guarantee they won't stop the mass marketing of anything that causes an erection or hair growth, even if it can kill you. however, those of us in need of medications for quality of life will now have to go back to underhanded means of obtaining enough medicine to be able to even function enough to make it through another pricey day.
2. anonymous
I have never bought any drug related products on line yet my in box contains endless emails offering the same, how do I stop this, I have tried filtering but this has not helped. So if the search engines are stopping the ads how do we stop the emails