Defining Clicks and Click Fraud

abb_road writes "Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have banded together and created the Click Measurement Group, with the goal of creating a standard definition for a 'click'. The group will have some access to the three companies' click data, although the access won't be unlimited. The move comes in response to advertisers who claim that click fraud is costing them almost $1 billion dollars a year, and who have hit Google and Yahoo with lawsuits alleging negligence in fighting click fraud."

Comments

Re:Definition of a `Click':

[Anonymous Coward]

...which is just the same as TV, radio, billboard and print, except that I know you saw the ad even if you didn't see the target of the ad. TV, radio, billboard and print advertisers pay for ads where they can't even accurately predict the number of people who will see their ad, let alone the number who will take any action based on it.

But please, do enlighten us. To what insane degree should we go? Should your purchasing habits be shared and aggregated by the likes of Google, just so they know that you really looked at the ad, clicked on it, filled in a form, bought a product, didn't refuse the delivery, didn't return the product, and didn't offer any negative feedback on it to your friends and neighbors?

Would that be enough to satisfy you? Or are you just a tightwad who expects to get his ads splashed all over my site free of charge? ;)

At the end of the day, you're paying me for access to my readers' eyeballs. If your product is irrelevant, overpriced or otherwise not useful to my readers, or you lack the marketing skills to gain their interest with your ad, why should I be forced to let you off the hook on paying me?

Yes, the definition of click might err slightly in favor of the publication rather than the advertiser - but nowhere near as much as *requiring* a click in the first place will err in favor of the advertiser instead of the publication.