Again With the High Click Fraud Stats

Click Forensics, a company that certainly benefits from press about high click fraud, has come out with another scary statement: Click Fraud accounts for more than 28% of clicks on content networks, which I assume means AdSense and similar types of syndicated networks. The overall rate of fraud is more than 16%, the company claims. Seeking Alpha covers it here.

The thing is, we've heard this before, and before that, and probably before that, and the response from Yahoo and Google is always the same: Click Forensics has got it all wrong. We catch nearly all fraud before anyone has to pay for it. All of this is overblown and misunderstood.

So why does Click Forensics keep at it? Who's right here?

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:02 AM
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Microsoft President on Yahoo

Just sent this link - an internal email from Kevin Johnson, Microsoft President, to employees (and posted to Microsoft's press area as well). Can't find much news in it but...

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:26 PM
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Google Responds to Privacy Fears On Searchblog

A while back I wrote a piece in which I expressed concerns about how Google might use data it has on individuals, and suggesting that I and perhaps others have hit their "Google saturation point." The post elicited alot of comments, including Matt Cutts of Google, who promised to respond with some policy clarifications. Well, the response got stuck in his mailbox, but he just posted it now. Here is the highlight:

For example, our internal user data access agreement explicitly mentions that Google employees are not allowed to try to access data on any public figure, any employee at a particular company, or any acquaintance. To do so would be grounds for immediate termination. So for the case that you’re worried about (running a start-up using Google’s tools), we have mechanisms and policies in place that specifically protect your privacy in that situation.

But...this allows them, from what I can tell, to access information on anyone who is not a "public figure, any employee at a particular company, or any acquaintance."

The way it's worded, it seems to be pretty easy to get around. "Hey Joe, do you know Battelle?" "No, who's he?" "Never mind, can you just go check out his files for me?"

Anyway....

• Posted by John Battelle at 11:25 AM
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And Microsoft Says You Must Be Kidding, Google

Punch, counterpunch. Someone tell the chief counsels to shut the f. up. More than three quarters of this Microsoft response is legalese. Please.

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:01 PM
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Google Slams Microsoft

In a blog post that will be its only response, according to an email I was sent, Google fires pretty much everything it has at the Microsoft/Yahoo deal.

... Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and

illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the
Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to
establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into
new, adjacent markets.

Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of
serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from
browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus
Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email
accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily
trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take
advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of
consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services?
Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions -- and consumers
deserve satisfying answers.

This hostile bid was announced on Friday so there is plenty of time for
these questions to be thoroughly addressed. We take Internet openness,
choice and innovation seriously. They are the core of our culture. We
believe that the interests of Internet users come first -- and should come
first -- as the merits of this proposed acquisition are examined and
alternatives explored.

• Posted by John Battelle at 12:13 PM
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