What will click fraud mean for Google now and in the future?


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.
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Last updated: February 13, 2012: 08:10 AM

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