It may be difficult for Google to prove it was doing everything it could to avoid taking ads from rogue pharmacies, considering the sheer volume of warnings it received from industry watchdogs over the years. That’s according to a Wall Street Journal report published over the weekend. The piece details warning after warning that illegal […]
Earlier this week, Google filed a mysterious report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it was setting aside $500 million related to a “potential resolution” of an advertising-related probe being conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice. Now, the mystery may be solved. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the investigation relates to […]
The war of words between Google and Bing has escalated today with a strong denial about copied search results from Bing’s Yusuf Mehdi, who also accused Google of a form of click fraud in setting up its test involving “honeypot” search results. Mehdi, Microsoft’s Senior VP of Online Services, just published a strongly-worded denial of […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Upstart DuckDuckGo Challenges Google With Strong Privacy, Cool Tools & Quackpot Name Here at Search Engine Land we regularly hear from people who have created “radical,” innovative,” “next generation” search technology, […]
Click Forensics quarterly report on overall click fraud was released for the fourth quarter of 2010. They said the click fraud rate dropped from 22.3 percent in the previous quarter to 19.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010. This is the first decline in click fraude reported by Click Forensics since Q2 2009. As you […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Demands Speed—Do You Need A Content Delivery Network? With Google upping the ante on speed of delivery as a factor in relevance ranking, even medium to smaller sites may now […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: All New Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools Today, Microsoft launched a revamp of their Bing Webmaster Tools. I talked to them back in June, when they previewed the tools at SMX Advanced, […]
Click Forensics released their report on the overall click fraud rates for the paid search industry. They said click fraud was up from 17.4 percent last quarter to 18.6 percent in the second quarter of 2010. The findings of the report said: The overall industry average click fraud rate was 18.6 percent. That’s up from […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The Only Constant Is Change Lately, I’ve heard a lot of folks chattering about the hot topics of the day. Google traffic is down after their update, mobile SEO is the […]
Anchor Intelligence released their latest click fraud report claiming the click fraud rate for the second quarter of 2010 was 28.9%. That is actually slightly down from the first quarter of this year, which was 29.2%. But yet significantly up from the prior year, the second quarter of 2009, which was 26%. Anchor Intelligence suggests […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s AdSense For Mobile (Apps) Becomes Gateway To Other Mobile Ad Networks Google announced that its AdSense for Mobile Apps program would start allowing publishers and developers to work with third […]
Mediapost reports that Google has been sued by 123 Lock & Key, a Seattle based locksmith company over click fraud. Mediapost said this is the first click fraud lawsuit against Google in five years. In fact, this is the first time Google was sued since settling a click fraud case in 2006 for $90 million. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: What We Know So Far About Google TV It’s very had to overstate the potential impact of Google TV (GTV) announced today. While there have been numerous efforts to put the […]
In a continuing effort to battle click fraud, Microsoft puts legal motions into place to stop “click laundering”. Microsoft said the most recent scheme could have defrauded advertisers of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Plaintiff, Microsoft, “… seeks injunctive relief and damages to remedy Defendants’ fraudulent conduct in perpetrating a sophisticated click-laundering fraud scheme […]
When building out a successful campaign on the major search engines, there often comes a time when the influx of traffic hits a plateau. To continue growing results, advertisers need to extend their reach and resources elsewhere. There are a few different routes to take when it comes to acquiring new traffic—however, the path most […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 3 Ways To Use Google’s Search Results For Keyword Research Years ago, on a planet far far away, people used to optimize for keyword density. But as relevancy algorithms have improved […]
Anchor Intelligence released their click fraud report today, reporting that click fraud has reached an all time high. The “Attempted Click Fraud” rate rose 13.4% from 25.7% in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 29.2% in the first quarter of 2010. Year-over-year, this is up 34% from Q1 2009. It is important to note that […]
I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that Ask Sponsored Listings has changed how they handle sending referrer data to webmasters. From now on, they are basically not sharing the page of origin with the webmaster. Why? Ask said they have moved to a new system named PureLeads. What is Pureleads? The FAQ explains: Pureleads […]
According to Google’s recent quarterly earnings report, the company earns about 34% of its revenue from AdSense, placing contextual ads on its content network partner websites. This proportion has stayed steady year over year. It certainly reflects overall growth, but some might be surprised at how conservative the pace is. One of the reasons for […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How To Optimize A Mobile AdWords Campaign Google is going mobile in a big way. Following the announcement of Nexus One, the official Google phone, and the acquisition of adMob, Google […]
One of Google’s more vocal critics says the company should cut its ties with InfoSpace over what he calls “a particularly insidious kind of click fraud” that involves a fairly complex combination of paid ads, affiliate traffic brokering, and spyware. Harvard assistant professor Ben Edelman also wants Google to repay the affected advertisers and be […]
This morning, many Yahoo advertisers received an email from Rust Consulting letting them know, they are included in a legal settlement over Yahoo search ads. The settlement web site, which is at inreyahoosettlement.com explains that the “lawsuit alleges that customers contracted for targeted ad placements through two products, “Sponsored Search” and “Content Match” (and predecessor […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Dissecting The AP & Murdoch Speeches Against Those Internet News Thieves Associated Press president Tom Curley and News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch both made speeches yesterday in China that are being […]
A report (PDF) by LegitScript and KnujOn claims that of the prescription drug and online pharmacy search ads on Bing (i.e. adCenter), Microsoft’s search engine, 89.7% led to “rogue” Internet pharmacies. By “rogue” they mean Internet pharmacies that fall into the categories of: Those that facilitate the sale of prescription drugs, including controlled substances, without […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yahoo Buys Xoopit To Advance “Smarter Inbox” Strategy The web’s first (and some might still argue only) “killer app,” email, was invented roughly 35 years ago. And everyone seems to have […]
Today, I received two click fraud reports from two different companies. The first was from Anchor Intelligence and the second was from Click Forensics. Anchor Intelligence reported a click fraud rate of 22.9% for the second quarter of 2009, up from 21.7% in the first quarter. While Click Forensics reports a click fraud rate of […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Report: How The Internet Has Changed Music Consumption Music file sharing services have always been a mutant species of search, offering different tools and methods for finding and listening to tunes. […]
The New York Times reports that Microsoft is taking the click fraud battle to court. “Microsoft filed the civil complaint on Monday in United States District Court in Seattle against Eric Lam, Gordon Lam and Melanie Suen, of Vancouver, British Columbia, along with several corporation names they were believed to have used, and several unnamed […]
In a new report by Harvard professor Ben Edelman shows how he believes Google and its partners inflate conversion rates and, in turn, increase advertising costs. From his report: Google and its partners systematically inflate advertisers’ conversion rates by interceding in transactions advertisers would otherwise have received for free. This conversion-inflation syndication fraud overstates the […]
Move over, Denny Crane: SMX has its own legal star programming and moderating panels in Seattle next month. In our fourth installment of our behind the scenes look at how SMX gets put together, Jeff Rohrs talks about paid search, law, fraud and what he’s looking forward to most at SMX Advanced. You are a […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Click fraud is worse today than ever according to an announcement from tracking company Click Forensics. Click Forensics estimates the overall average click fraud rate for Q4 2008 at 17.1%, the highest level since they began tracking it in 2006. That rate is up from 16.0% in Q3 2008 and from the 16.6% rate reported […]
In The Trenches is a spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. My SEM Wish List: All I Want For Christmas is the Perfect Search Tool, Continued In my last column, I explained how much I want a new […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Click Forensics has released their estimated 3rd quarter click fraud numbers that they track. The numbers remain pretty much the same, at least as it pertains to the overall estimated industry average click fraud rate. The rate is now 16.0%, down from last quarter’s 16.2%. The main change was that botnets were said to be […]
Google allies with click-fraud-detection firm Click Forensics from ComputerWorld reports Google has now agreed to work with Click Forensics to aid in the detection and reporting of search ad click fraud.
In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: News from the search engines, today’s in-depth look, “Q&A With Google’s Insights for Search Senior Product Manager” and this week’s free tips and tools.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Click Forensics has released the second quarter results for 2008, showing a slight drop in the estimated click fraud. Last quarter, Click Forensics reported a 16.3 percent rate, and they are now reporting a 16.2 percent rate for Q2 of 2008. However, the rate is up from a year ago, which was a 15.8 percent […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.