Green Light and a Red Face

Excite, one of the Internet’s most popular portal sites, was forced to admit an embarrassing oversight last week when it learned that adult advertisements were appearing in Web site searches that were supposed to be child-safe.

The Redwood City, Calif., company quickly amended its ad placement policy so that X-rated ads no longer pop up in “green light” searches on its https://magellan.excite.com/ Web site.

Green Light is an option users can select to block adult material from appearing in lists of search results. But Excite officials admitted they failed to also block adult advertisements.