ClickFraud posts

Filed under: Internet, News, Blogging, Google

Google's Blogspot is 3/4 Spam

by Grant Robertson Mar 22nd 2007

From the we-could-have-told-you-that department. An article released Monday by PC World says as many as 3 out of 4 Blogspot blogs are actually Splogs -- a slang term for Spam blogs which exist only to swindle click-through ad dollars.

According to the PC World story, "Three out of every four unique Blogspot.com URLs that appeared in the top 50 results for commercial queries were spam"

Some days you have to ask yourself, why does Google continue to let these situations run wild? It's so circular; Splogs wind up clogging search results, which cause advertisers -- even those using Google's own Adsense -- to spend money on clicks they could have earned themselves, if only they didn't have to compete for search rankings with all the splogs. Oh, wait.. I think we just found the reason.

Tags: adsense, click fraud, ClickFraud, google, google adwords, GoogleAdwords, spam, spam blogs, SpamBlogs, splog, splogs

Filed under: Business, Internet, Security, Google

Click Fraud stats in Google AdWords

by Chris Gilmer Jul 26th 2006

Google will now offer advertisers access to their click fraud statistics. Google has made changes in its AdWords system to enable companies and individuals to see if there have been any invalid clicks to any of their Google ad campaigns. This new AdWords feature will give advertisers a more detailed look into any invalid click activity in their account.

Google's main goal with this approach is to provide transparency so that advertisers who may have previously been concerned with click fraud issues will be able to see how Google is protecting them against any harm.

Tags: ads, advertiser, adwords, click fraud, ClickFraud, google, invalid clicks, InvalidClicks, online ads, OnlineAds

Filed under: Business, Blogging, Web services, Google, Googleholic

Googleholic for July 25, 2006

by Chris Gilmer Jul 25th 2006

We are starting up a new little feature at the Download Squad called Googleholic. Googleholic will be broadcast twice a week profiling a few smaller but interesting Google facts, tips, and news items.

So let's get started!

Tags: arkansas, click fraud, ClickFraud, finance, google, google accessible search, google case, google court, google finance, google search, GoogleAccessibleSearch, GoogleCase, GoogleCourt, GoogleFinance, googleholic, GoogleSearch, investing, portfolio, search, stocks

Filed under: Developer, Internet, Blogging, Web services, Google

Google Invalid Clicks Document

by Chris Gilmer Jul 24th 2006

A while ago, a company brought Google to court in regards to a click fraud case, and invalid clicks. As part of the settlement, Google was ordered to have an independent expert examine the methods Google has in place to determine if they are detecting things properly. The individual went through Google and examined their policies, practices, and procedures.

The report found that Google's efforts against click fraud are in fact reasonable. And now Google has a 47 page report of the conclusions.

Dr. Alexander Tuzhilin, the individual set in place to examine Google, is a Professor of Information Systems at NYU. Tuzhilin looked at the types of data Google collected, filtering methods, log generations, AdSense auto-termination methods, ad conversion systems, AdSense publisher systems, click quality investigative processes, credit process systems, and alerting systems to see if Google met reasonable efforts for invalid clicks, and click fraud issues.

During his visits to Google, Alexander met with many engineers responsible for the design and development of the online invalid click detection software, in addition to spam operators who inspect invalid clicking activities.

The document covers not only Google's history, but the internet's history as well. Google's pay per click advertising model is touched upon in some detail, as well as the pay per click model, including AdWords and AdSense program outlines.

The Tuzhilin Report is a great read to look into Google, and how they battle click fraud issues, and invalid click concerns.

Tags: adsense, adwords, click fraud, ClickFraud, google, google ad, google news, GoogleAd, GoogleNews, invalid clicks, InvalidClicks, online ads, OnlineAds

Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Google

Google does not support click fraud

by Chris Gilmer Jul 14th 2006

Apparently there was a little chatter around the blogosphere lately about how Google supports click fraud. Well, then business product manager for trust and security over at Google cleared some things up on Google's corporate blog.

Shurman Ghosemajumder, the business product manager for trust and security at Google spoke up about the issue at hand, and stated that a blogger quoted Eric Schmidt a little twistedly when he recently spoke about the click fraud issue.

When asked about click fraud at a Stanford economics event in March, Schmidt said there has been some talk about click fraud being a potential threat to the entire advertising business model, and he was wondering what people thoughts were, and if there was an economic solution, instead of a technical one. Eric was answering hypothetically, and was not describing Google's approach to click fraud. Eric went on to discuss the economic issues that can slow down fraud, dropping the price that the advertiser is willing to pay for potentially bad clicks. Thus, self correcting the actual real ad price.

The whole time during the presentation, he kept stating that Google does not take this approach.

You can find a video of the presentation at hand here.

Tags: click fraud, ClickFraud, eric schmidt, EricSchmidt, google, google news, google presentation, google video, GoogleNews, GooglePresentation, GoogleVideo, presentation, Shurman Ghosemajumder, ShurmanGhosemajumder, stanford

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