The Labour Party has beenaccused of Internet dirty tricks by "unethically" using web technology to attract Conservative and Liberal Democrat supporters to its website.
An IT news and analysis portal, www.CW360.com, claimed Labour has been using "metatags" - key words or phrases - of rival parties to attract traffic to its internet site.
It is deemed to be poor Internet convention for an organisation to submit key words associated with a rival to direct web traffic to its site.
CW360.com claimed surfers who type in words like William Hague and law and order into search engines such as www.msn.comare directed to a list of websites including the Labour Party - www.labour.org.uk.
Key words such as Conservative, Tory, William Hague, SNP, Plaid Cymru, Lib Dems and Green were also alleged to bring up the Labour site.
Mr Hooman Bassirian, director of content for CW360.com, said: "The Labour Party's actions are not illegal, but may be construed by some to be unethical. In the commercial world this type of action could be open to legal challenge.
"In the wider context, it would be good for UK e-commerce if government and the business community agreed and adopted a set of best practices for the use of metatags.
"This will also ensure consumers have confidence in the information they gather from the internet."
"This bid to emulate the bad practices in the commercial world is highly unethical and immoral." Liberal Democrat IT spokesman Richard Allan said: "This demonstrates that the Labour Party will use any tactic to gain an edge."
A Conservative Party spokesman said: "This is typical of New Labour - deceiving people and conning the public into listening to what they have to say."
- PA