Newsweek On Click Fraud, Search Engine Response

prostoalex writes "Newsweek magazine says click fraud is the bane of the search advertising industry. Google and Yahoo! are apparently working on the standardized definition of a "good-faith" click in order to weed out the fraudulent ones. Meanwhile, merchants like Assaf Nehoray are taking their money elsewhere, getting abundant clicks, but no real revenue on Internet advertising campaigns. Newsweek also mentions Google suing a Texas company for placing the AdSense code and then clicking on it in order to run up the revenue. John Battelle says that his friends in the search industry tell him the click fraud is growing and that changes are not too far away."

Comments

Darn!

[Sebby]

I thought they were talking about Amazon's one-click!

Back in the day...

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone remember those "paid to surf/look at ads" schemes that used to be all the rage... until a few people wrote some programs to keep the mouse active and the pennies flowing.... good times.

Re: Hilarity ensues!

[Black Parrot]

> To me, it's absolutely hilarious that much time and money is being spent to figure out how to improve a business model that's fundamentally idiotic.

Don't have an MBA, do you.

Re:Cycle.

[Technician]

Phantom clicks > No Sales > Advertisers Decrease > Price Per Click Drops > Google goes bust > Phantom Clicks Stops...