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HitTheTrail Member
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 5458 | TRs | Pics Location: 509 |
On some internet news sites (like Fox) they use a rectangle with a right pointing arrow after the headline. I am assuming it means the "news item" is actually a sponsored link. But I have done google and bing searches and can't find an actual definition of the symbol. Anybody know? Here are a couple of examples I have pulled off the news site.
news symbols
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Cyclopath Faster than light
Joined: 20 Mar 2012 Posts: 7740 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
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Cyclopath
Faster than light
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Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:58 am
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Do the links with that symbol open in a new browser window or tab?
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HitTheTrail Member
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 5458 | TRs | Pics Location: 509 |
Cyclopath wrote: | Do the links with that symbol open in a new browser window or tab? |
Yes they do in fact. But it make me suspicious that they all read like a sponsored link rather than an actual news item. Aren't sponsored links required to be labeled as such?
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NacMacFeegle Member
Joined: 16 Jan 2014 Posts: 2653 | TRs | Pics Location: United States |
I too did some googling, and I couldn't dig up any info on it. I think you may be right about them being adds, do the links lead to the same website or do they open to different sites? If they open to the different sites I think there's a good chance the symbol means that they're sponsored links.
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HitTheTrail Member
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 5458 | TRs | Pics Location: 509 |
Actually, I just went into some of them and they all went to AOL news articles that had a commercial slant to them.
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Ringangleclaw Member
Joined: 01 Sep 2010 Posts: 1559 | TRs | Pics
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Symbol for an external link
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HitTheTrail Member
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 5458 | TRs | Pics Location: 509 |
Ringangleclaw wrote: | Symbol for an external link |
Thanks, but one of many it seems.
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Ringangleclaw Member
Joined: 01 Sep 2010 Posts: 1559 | TRs | Pics
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Yes. But you asked what it was.
They are all grossly similar.
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Cyclopath Faster than light
Joined: 20 Mar 2012 Posts: 7740 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
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Cyclopath
Faster than light
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Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:52 pm
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There's a standard for how to do it (make a link) in code, which is why it generally works no matter what web site you're on or browser you're using, or even if you're on a desktop computer or a phone. But there's no real standard for how to tell people reading your site that something is a link, or what kind it is. So people are left to their own devices and a lot of them reinvent the wheel.
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HitTheTrail Member
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 5458 | TRs | Pics Location: 509 |
OK, now I know what the symbol means. Thanks all. My real question was if it represented a disguised sponsored link. Having read through a few of them some come across like legitimate news articles and some seem to be stealth ads. So maybe it is both.
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Gray Lazy Hiker
Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 1059 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle, WA |
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Gray
Lazy Hiker
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Tue Jan 05, 2016 8:30 pm
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HitTheTrail wrote: | Aren't sponsored links required to be labeled as such? |
No. Who would enforce such a requirement?
I think most people do label them as such because they know a lot of people will just stop coming to their site if they can't trust the links.
--Gray
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mike Member
Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 6398 | TRs | Pics Location: SJIsl |
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mike
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Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:04 pm
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Can't you just mouse-over and see where it points? Then clic or not.
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HitTheTrail Member
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 5458 | TRs | Pics Location: 509 |
Gray wrote: | No. Who would enforce such a requirement? |
I am referring to news bullet items on a news site. Look at Yahoo News for instance. The items listed along with real news items are clearly marked as "sponsored" with a $ sign beside them on the lower right side of the web site at the bottom. I also just read a news item that the FCC was cracking down even harder on such sites because they look so much like news when they are interspersed with news like Yahoo does.
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