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Telco
Money Grab Numbers Revealed
All those billions of dollars the telecom companies want to snatch from content
providers gain a bit of context thanks to BellSouth chief architect Henry Kafka.
AdWords
Demographics One-Ups AdCenter
Google recently made demographic targeting for AdWords campaigns available for
its marketers, who can use the feature to narrow the types of sites that display
its advertising.
Google
Saved Dilbert
Scott Adams, creator of the popular Dilbert comic strip, found himself with a
strange speaking problem that baffled doctors but not Google.
Google
Settles Click-Fraud Class Action
Search
Engine Watch reported that Google has agreed to pay approximately $90million
into a fund to settle a click-fraud based class-action suit brought against it
by Lanes Gifts and Collectibles.
Microsoft
Replaces MSN with Windows Live
Microsoft is replacing MSN Search
with a new search interface, Windows
Live. Currently in beta, Microsoft hopes the new look and functionality will
help...
Ask
Searches On The Continental Plan
Searchers in France, Italy, and the Netherlands can choose to try beta versions
of the Ask.com search engine in those countries.
Google
Click Fraud Settlement: $90 Million
A class-action lawsuit filed by Lane's Gifts and Collectibles in Arkansas against
Google could end soon if the presiding judge approves a proposed settlement.
Microsoft Opens Window On Live Search
The debut of Windows Live Search delivered a couple of new features, more of its
advertising service, and possibly better relevance for its organic and paid search
results.
Online
Dating Not Just For Geeks Anymore
Ten years ago, people sniggered when a peer said they had a date with someone
they met online. The stigma seems to be lessening in American society...
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Google's Shuman Ghosemajumder, Business Product Manager for Trust & Safety,
provided answers for some common questions about click fraud after Google disclosed
it was nearing a settlement in a lawsuit filed against it over the problem.
Editor's Note: Is click fraud a dire threat to online advertising, or has the menace been greatly overstated? How has it affected your online business? Post about it at WebProWorld.
 For
one thing, Google isn't going to tell how they detect invalid clicks. Ghosemajumder
noted
in the Q&A posted at the AdWords blog that a lot of smart people developed
the methods and technology used in tracking those down. "Doing so would make it
easier for fraudsters to try to defeat our systems," he said.
Google also sees a problem with all invalid clicks being called fraudulent. Many clicks happen due to other causes, like someone double-clicking on an ad. While Google can identify a click as invalid, it is "practically impossible to "prove" that an impression or click was caused by deliberate deception," Ghosemajumder said.
There is a wide discrepancy between how much activity is believed to be invalid versus how muchreally is not valid. Ghosemajumder dismissed a report used in some places as a source for a click fraud figure of 30 percent.
"When invalid clicks are detected after an advertiser is charged, we reimburse for them. Because of our detection efforts, losses to advertisers from invalid clicks are very small," Ghosemajumder said. He also claimed that while some invalid clicks make it past Google's defenses, they believe that amount is very small.
Two issues come to mind when considering these questions and answers. First, Google does not provide numbers to back up their contentions. The lack of transparency frustrates not only its advertisers, but also its investors. Google has plenty of motivation to continually improve their system for defeating invalid clicks, and will continue to do so.
The other issue is the marketplace. The lack of transparency has begun to open a market for products that claim to be able to detect fraudulent clicks and clicks resulting from ad campaigns that need to be fixed. I spoke with a marketing executive from a well-known firm offering such a solution, and he flatly refused to answers questions regarding how much click fraud versus problematic clicks may be taking place based on his firm's research.
That was unfortunate because it could have shed some more light on the issue. But it could also indicate Google's claims are correct, and click fraud is a small portion of invalid click traffic. Definitely not small enough to avoid a $90 million settlement for its click fraud case, though.
About
the Author:
David is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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Demographic
Targeting with Google AdWords
 By
Lee Odden
On the heels of MSN AdCenter's demographic profiling aspirations, Google AdWords
now offers demographic
site selection with gender, age, and household income as the demographic categories
available.
Ed's note:
Because having control of where advertising appears is a crucial aspect of
marketing, having the ability to demographically control where ads appear is absolutely
key. Just ask the television marketing industry. Now Google has jumped on board.
Do you see yourself using Google's new targeting system? Discuss at
SyndicationPro.
The demographic information comes from ComScore. Additional
info from:
JenStar: "It will be interesting to see if advertisers find that the profiles are matching the resulting traffic from those sites. And I am sure some publishers will reverse engineer an AdWords campaign to see what demographic profile their own site is, and if it matches what they believe their traffic to be."
Traffick: "Essentially what this means is an improved functionality for the site selection tool, only applicable to content targeting of the "site targeting" variety. It's not a major foray into targeting search ads by demographics, then (yet)."
Does this take some wind out of MSN AdCenter's sails? Well, that's the power of
Google. Once the demographic site selection gets significant usage along with
MSN AdCenter, there will be some interesting feedback I'm sure. Seems like a good
session idea for SES San Jose. h/t Andy
Discuss this and other topics at SyndicationPro
About
the Author:
Lee Odden is President of TopRank Online Marketing. He publishes daily search engine news on the Online Marketing Blog and also writes regular search marketing articles for AllBusiness.com, Lockergnome.com and Practical eCommerce Magazine.
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Discussing Circular Navigation
Has much as we might enjoy a technological plateau, in this day and age it would
be too much to ask. The ever-changing world of tech includes the search industry
as one of the most consistent of the evolvers. Search technology (at least from
the ranking/algorithm aspect) is constantly being modified and refined, all for
the purpose of bringing you the most relevant search results. This subject is
particularly topical, especially when you consider the post below.
One of WPW's popular contributors, incrediblehelp, as stumbled across the concept
of circular navigation and would like some clarification as to what it is and
what it does, all in an effort to understand the industry's stance on this style
of linking. Drop on by and help clear the air. I'm sure the help will be appreciated.
|| Chris||
Circular Navigation...No, No or Yes, Yes
A somewhat new way of describing your websites navigation is circular navigation and Matt Cutts and others have said it is a no,no and can cause duplicate content issues on your website. I was wondering if the pros here at WPW can enlighten me as to what their definition on circular navigation is?
I know it means having multiple paths to the same page on your website, but that definition is way to generic for me. In fact having multiple paths to the same page on your website is a good thing from a usability stand point. Maybe "they" mean it is bad to have page A's side navigation menu linking to page B and then within the text of page A you have more links to page B, wikipedia style?
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WebPro Question: |
For sales purposes tracking is definitely needed, however I do not want to loose
the natural outbound links I have from our listings pages. Any ideas on exit link
tracking?
- dostwo
Comment
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