News That's Unfit to Print

So a friend of mine finds a link to an article on Yahoo! that asks "Do you know how to spot skin cancer?"

Well, to make a long story short, the article at the other end of the link was basically paid advertising from a cheap skin-care products company done up to look like a serious article on warning signs for skin cancer, complete with a link to an assessment that like would have breathlessly exclaimed that you need their products.

In this case, while they didn't manage to gain a new customer, they sure managed to scare someone out of their wits. I'm a bit annoyed with Yahoo for allowing that sort of thing. If an article is a paid advertisement, is should be noted as such, rather than being tucked in with the news articles. Of course, they don't shoulder all of the blame - after all, the sponsorship of the article wasn't hidden, and even if the name wasn't familiar, a quick Google search would have revealed their business.

But I can understand how having to always be on guard becomes tiresome after a while.