Search Trends - Search Engine Marketing

Google has always claimed that the actual click fraud numbers are much lower than what third party click fraud trackers report. A new report from Google's click quality team examines the accuracy of these fraud cops' methodology. Google obviously has a lot at stake and if they can prove these guys' methods don't really work to detect click fraud, they can breathe a little easier (for now), the bad news is the fraudsters will gain more confidence and continue to find ways to exploit the system.

If you're really interested in this stuff (like I am), you can download the full PDF report here.

I still believe Google is the best at filtering bad clicks and not charging advertisers for them. Why is everyone talking about Google and click fraud? (Uh, yeah, I know they're the biggest search engine, but still). I think click fraud is a much bigger problem with Yahoo...and don't even get me started on second-tier PPC engines like Ah-ha, Kanoodle, and FindWhat...

One final parting thought, if this Google report is correct and all click auditing services suck, where does that leave us? Back at the mercy of the freakin' search engines again!?! Argh! Now what do we do?

Thanks a lot, Google!