Google stands to lose millions if fraud continues. It is only a matter of time before the current problem of click fraud implodes on Google.
You've seen them, there impossible to miss, glaring at you on virtually every page of your favorite website, those little blue boxes that webmasters have become so fond of, the infamous Google Ad's. Everyone wants to get in on the big bucks action. If you listen to the stories, Google is writing some impressive checks and the temptation will be just to much for the hackers. The target is so obvious.
You see, hackers don't care who benefits from their efforts as long as "the Man" suffers. For many years now the man has been Bill Gates and Microsoft. Hackers have done everything possible to disable his empire, creating virus after virus just to mess with him, even the US Government got into the act. Now the new giant on the block is Google and the hackers are drooling with anticipation. It is just a mater of time before some genius hacker figures out how to get a spider to do his dirty work and turns loose a new age type of virus, the "clicker bug."
Here is a quick overview; the search engine advertising market is currently almost $4 billion per year with fraud estimated somewhere in the 5-15% range. The majority of this fraud is done at the search engine listing page level and most is accomplished by hand. The object is to drive up the click counts of a targeted website to use up there budget and consequently disable there ad or better yet get the company (your competition) to remove them entirely.
Both Google and Yahoo/Overture acknowledge that the click fraud problem exists. Their in house experts claim that improved internal controls will prevent this problem from escalating. Their stated position seems to be that they are concerned about click fraud, but that it is not a material issue so far. Given how much they stand to lose if advertisers cut back on advertising spending, this cavalier attitude certainly is surprising. Industry research firm eMarketer expects $7.4 billion to be spent on search engine advertising by 2008. At the current fraud rates that amounts to $750 million, about three quarters of a billion dollars!
Now along comes the "clicker bug" and instead of attacking the case hardened, almost bullet proof, servers of the search engine giant, they crawl the internet and click indiscriminately on 3 or 4 ads per website every night. The clicks would appear harmless and the bugs effort will only generate revenues of $ .25 for the page owners. After all, the object is to take down the man not generate revenue for any given website. The search engines will be so busy guarding the vault against monsters they won't notice the ants walking away with the refrigerator, but multiply that quarter times the total number of websites available and in just a few days Google could be overwhelmed. The only way to stop it would be to encrypt every ad or employ pattern gif's like the "who is" pages do.
Grant it the technology is not quite there yet but hackers are some the industries brightest, if a bit deranged, programmers and they will figure it out. If I can think of it they can do it.
Michael Klasno is an Assisted SEO Marketing Specialist and CEO of Net Performance Group Inc. Net Performance specializes in fishing and outdoor website design and marketing. For more internet marketing articles by this author please visit: http://www.netperformancegroup.com/articles/articles.htm
Lincoln Stretch rentals Alsip ..Joel Comm is the best-selling author of a book called... Read More
A lot of affiliates are selling other people's products with... Read More
Google and Yahoo-Overture control over 90% of the... Read More
Adwords PPC Management Tip No. 1Setting up an accountIf you... Read More
The cycle of affiliate programs and money making ventures goes... Read More
In this age of speed dialing, T1 lines and other... Read More
"I don't need the Internet to advertise - I'm a... Read More
So, you've tried all the marketing techniques you have read... Read More
Not long ago, Forbes magazine has reported that pay per... Read More
Blame GameNearly anyone and everyone involved with search engine optimization... Read More
No doubt you've heard the phrase "pay per click" before.... Read More
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is one of the most cost effective... Read More
These are simply advertisements related, in theory and often practice,... Read More
How much revenue do you generate from Google Adsense?Recently there... Read More
Lots of people would like to get their Web site... Read More
Google's AdSense program is probably the best affiliate program on... Read More
Click fraud is currently a major topic in online advertising.... Read More
Pay Per Click advertising has been around a few years... Read More
Google AdSense is a great way for webmasters to monetize... Read More
One of the biggest problems faced by ClickBank merchants is... Read More
Determining keywords is a critical step in web design. If... Read More
The other day I was talking to one of my... Read More
One of the common issues that marketers face when using... Read More
You probably have already heard about the new marketing tool... Read More
It may seem to be a very expensive way of... Read More
Western Springs shuttle limo ..The Mechanism First a brief glossary of terms: Adwords: The... Read More
Google's AdSense program is a proven money-maker that has enriched... Read More
If you have visited any of the affiliate-related websites or... Read More
Google AdSense allows webmasters to dynamically serve... Read More
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is one of the most cost effective... Read More
In order for your online business to succeed you must... Read More
Running a pay per click campaign can be a valuable,... Read More
Google is probably one of the single most important revolutions... Read More
So how do people find my website? This is by... Read More
Click fraud is currently a major topic in online advertising.... Read More
Never mind the irritating, but effective, pop-up window. There is... Read More
What are Website Conversion Strategies?Website conversion strategies are marketing and... Read More
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to... Read More
As the dust settles and the excitement caused by Google's... Read More
Faced with a mediocre or worse performing paid search campaign... Read More
At first glance, Pay Per Click advertising seems to be... Read More
How?Dead easy.I implemented this tactic myself yesterday on one of... Read More
One of the biggest threats to the continued growth of... Read More
Pay Per Performance Advertising is when the advertiser pays a... Read More
It is really frustrating, is it not, to log into... Read More
When running ads on the AdWords network, one of the... Read More
There's a lot of buzz around about how you can... Read More
Pay-Per click fraud dates back even from the time when... Read More
Click fraud is an unfortunate byproduct of the pay per... Read More
When we launch a new product, we all hope it's... Read More
Pay-Per-Click Advertising |