When consumers search the web, it’s getting harder from them to tell the regular “organic” search results from the paid advertisements that appear nearby. Critics suggest people are being bamboozled, and that regulators should force Google and others to do more to identify what’s an ad and what’s a search result.

Is that a fair conclusion? While no one likes deception, any move to regulate must also take account of the increasing sophistication of online consumers, and the changing nature of search results and the web itself. Meanwhile, it’s unclear how much power the FTC — the agency in charge of stopping deceptive advertising — has over search results in the first place.

Here’s a look at the debate and what might happen next.

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Once upon a time, it was easy to tell “real” search results from the results that advertisers paid to place on sites like [company]Yahoo[/company] and [company]Google[/company]. As…