In the midst of writing last week's "click fraud" post, I was suddenly struck by something. Is Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) forcing a "reboot" of the advertising industry as we know it? Although this article postulates that Google's new universal search unveiling (really just a rework) was a causal event for the rather large 10%-15% click fraud estimates that came out of Fair Isaac, what is one to make of all this?

Google has stated before that it measures click fraud activity stringently and zaps almost all of it out of existence -- sometimes before the Google ad partner is even billed. While some Google partners are not 100% convinced of this, they continue to trust the web search leader since so many businesses live or die based on Google advertising revenue. You can be mad at the company's efforts to keep click fraud under control, but you can also be quite powerless.

The company can't just give all the specifics on how it fights click fraud, lest it enable click fraud hucksters even further. But, Google will continue to face public pressure over click fraud well into 2008 unless is devises some kind of strategy (a public one) to assure customers that it it keeping a lid on the problem. Google has some of the best engineering minds on the planet -- so if any company can get this under control, keep it that way and prove to its customers that it's not a concern, it will be Google. Time to put up or shut up.

Google's unveiling of "universal search" last week meant that its search customers could now see results from web searches not only in terms of related website results, but from video and news sources as well. Previously, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) had not combined search results into a single "one-stop shop" for search customers (who had to visit more Google sites). Well, that is no longer the case. Just perform a search at www.google.com and look at how the results are presented, along with the navigation at the top of your screen.

With all the mess some news websites and companies have given Google in the past, it may get a little worse for Google now that search customers can "find" news articles and related information from news-based websites much more easily than before. Although Google News doesn't "publish" a thing, some have sued Google because it includes (not steals) content from news websites all over the web. I've never heard of an encyclopedia company being sued, nor Wikipedia. But, Google is a target precisely because of how large and popular it is. Information democratization is just not in the vocabulary of some.

Now, news stories and such have appeared in standard Google search results for quite a while now. But, with "News" being right there -- front and center -- as a search resource, will the company see more action in terms of so-called "copyright infringement"? Most likely, yes. Smart news-based websites realize that partnering with Google is great for business (when done correctly), and the "old guard" realizes that fighting off readers is probably not good for business. "Walled gardens" are being torn down and that will not stop. Google will see to that, and for the term "information superhighway" to continue meaning anything, progress needs to move forward, right?