One of the few dingers against Google recently -- well, in the media anyway -- has been the rise of advertisers
using the Google network against "click fraud". This is the
practice that some people, shops and bots employ
to continuously click on ads to cause a competing advertiser's budget to dry up -- enhancing ads from competitors in
the process. It's definitely not playing fair.
The one thing Google cannot allow to happen -- without it
adversely (possibly) affecting its bottom line -- is to rankle its advertisers. Sure, many advertisers could not
afford to do without their Google presence. But would they shift more ad dollars to Yahoo's
similarly-designed ad system (similar as of just recently), and maybe Microsoft's upcoming competitor to Google's AdSense
system? You never know. Every time eBay forces fee increases -- even though they are the largest auction site in the
world -- some seller customers jump ship.
What will click fraud mean for Google now and in the future?
Posted Apr 28th 2006 8:34AM by Brian White
Filed under: Bad news, Industry, Consumer experience, Internet, Google (GOOG)
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