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Article:
Advertising 'Click Fraud' Rampant Online? by: Jim Edwards 'Pay-per-click,' by far the most popular form of online advertising, recently came under fire as charges of rampant 'click fraud' gather steam on the Web. Google and Yahoo! earn the majority of their money through sales of advertising to tens-of-thousands of online merchants, companies, and professional. In fact, some estimate that 99% of all Google's revenue comes from advertising sales. Unfortunately, allegations of click fraud may well rain on Google's otherwise sunny parade and cause a whole scale revamping of current online advertising practices. Pay-per-click advertising does exactly what it sounds: advertisers pay for each click on their ad, usually mixed in among search engine results or displayed on relevant websites. 'Click fraud' occurs when, for whatever reason, an ad gets clicked by someone or something (usually an automated 'bot' that simulates clicks) with no intention of ever buying anything from the advertiser. The sole intention of click fraud is to simply drain an advertiser's budget and leave them with nothing to show but an empty wallet. Who commits click fraud? Usually an unscrupulous competitor who wants to break a rival's bank, online 'vandals' who get their kicks causing other people grief, or search engine advertising affiliates who want to earn fat commissions by racking up piles of bogus clicks. Regardless of who does it or why, click fraud appears to be a growing problem search engines hope stays under their advertising clients' radar. This problem isn't exactly news to the search engine giants. In fact, on page 60 of their 3rd quarter Report for '2004
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