While it's already been reported everywhere from the New York Post to the evening news, it's worth posting that Google will be sharing its own click fraud stats with advertisers.
Until now, advertisers had to base their claims on reports provided by third-party vendors. Evidently, Google has believed that these reports inflate click fraud statistics. (Click fraud, by some reports, accounts for as much as 14.6% of all clicks on the major search engines.)
According to Google (via CNET):
"Our goal is to provide that transparency so advertisers who previously may have been unnerved or concerned about these wildly exaggerated figures will be able to see now what Google is doing to protect them," [Shuman] Ghosemajumder, [business product manager for trust and safety at Google] said.
Google detects and filters out the "vast majority" of invalid clicks, he said, declining to give any general figures on invalid clicks.
Under the new system, AdWords customers will be able to see data on invalid clicks on a daily basis or beyond, going back to the beginning of the year, he said.
(Ah, if only they would do that much for splog prevention.)
Meanwhile, a day earlier, a group of plaintiffs filed a class action suit, claiming that Google's not doing enough to prevent click fraud. The plainiffs, who represent mostly smaller businesses, say their current settlement forces them to provide their own proof of fraud, and presumably most can't afford the analytics to do so. Their seeking about $90 million in legal fees and credit among 51 plaintiffs.
