Comments on: Staying ahead of click fraud

By: Ymiller

Ymiller — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:04:16 +0000

To Ben:

(continued)

It’s the same as if you were complaining about junk mail, and for each store advertisement you recieved you would drive down to the store and stand around to waste their electricity.

Technically, if you want to get back at them, turn your pop up blocker off and just ignore every pop up. That’s what they’re paying for.

By: Ymiller

Ymiller — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:01:19 +0000

To Ben:

Although you may think you’re making a statement by clicking on a popup to waste their money, you’re actually doing just the opposite.

Popup and pop under ads are generally paid for by impression, not by resulting clicks. The fact that you are clicking on them only proves to the advertiser that the advertisement is being effective in getting a response, and encouraging them to continue.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:57:13 +0000

That being said, I hate all pop-up and pop-under advertising full stop. Specifically I cannot abide any website that opens a window without my specific permission or knowledge.

There are several online advertising companies that use various underhanded tricks to bypass the browser’s pop-up blocking software.

The worst offender for this is tribalfusion.com. They have stopped me from continuing to support some big websites such as experts-exchange.com, MacSlash.org and Dilbert Online. The common ads you see from this company are Smiley Central and Tickle.com.

I detest this technique and wish someone “big” would sue them. Technically I see this activity as a deliberate circumvention of my computer’s security (illegal in many countries) and hence, I make a point of clicking on every ad that I get shown using such dirty, sly practices.

Therefore, the term “click fraud” in this context should more appropriately be called “click wrath”!

I encourage more users to click on any adverts that mysteriously appear in pop-ups and pop-unders to discourage the continued practice of using them. They won’t listen to us any other way. Vote with your clicks people. :-)

By: Paul M

Paul M — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 04:23:55 +0000

This article is the first time I’ve become aware of the Click Fraud issue. While I agree that this issue should be addressed by all concerned, I also recognize that some of my surfing actions could be interpreted that way though that was not my intent. On many occasions I search for a business that I have a relationship with to check my accounts or place an order. If they have an entry in the Sponsored list I will often click that rather than the nearly identical one that shows up in the regular list a few items down. The problem is that the Sponsored links often seem to lead to areas of the site that don’t appear to have a way to get to the area that I’m interested in. When that happens, I go back to the results and select the non Sponsored link that takes me to the main Home Page for the company where I can find the resources that I do want. I don’t know how common this is among the user base but I wanted to let both sides know that this does happen, at least in my case. If there is a way to assess the search results better that I am not aware of that will prevent this approach from appearing desirable I would like to know what it is. I’ll try to remember to check back periodically to see what solutions are being considered to this issue. Thank you for your attention and I now yield the floor.

By: hector

hector — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 05:47:02 +0000

I feel like a coward, i know its so easy to comment but actions and decisions are tough.
Anyway, i read content delivered by these keywords at these engines:
Msn search- msn panama yahoo
Google search- yahoo panama google
aol search- yahoo panama aol

While i was reading all those blogs and sites i was also listening at http://www.thepartnermaker.com/weekly_insight/index.php?id=6

I read about podcast at wiki and i am thinking how come websites dont have voice commentry when people are at their page?

I would never want to be a spectator while playing FPS but with you all being a spectator is starting to be fun ;-)

By: hector

hector — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 04:32:05 +0000

Yahoo! i admire your traffic quality initiatives. John your response post was very informative. When it comes to making quick, easy money, some will do anything! Even when they know, it will affect them negatively in their lifetime. On a positive note, they say online holiday spending has been good :-)

Reading ‘The Sausage Manifesto’ and then checking ‘Netrospective’ made me sad but it also got me thinking about the real world.
Real world means competition, struggle, evolution and survival.
I would love to see
- a stronger Yahoo! brand.
- periodic buzz about Yahoo! with ads, products, creative initiatives.
- Most work with what we have studied during our education years, their has to be periodic study of new languages, analysis of other companies, communication and interaction with current generation.
- It’s ancient knowledge, create new leaders coz they know the generation and users but let them be guided and advised by old leaders coz they know the company.
Finally remember even the Lions hunt in pack coz togather they can hunt more and watch out for hyena’s.