Google says it loses $1 billion a year to false ad clicks

[Ankur Mittal]

Google Inc. loses about $1 billion US a year to "click fraud" or other invalid click-throughs on its ad service, the company says.

Advertisers have been asking Google for a clearer picture of the reach and effectiveness of their ads.

Google's AdWords service brings together advertisers and websites willing to display their ads. Advertisers pay Google a fee based on the number of click-throughs, and site operators receive a commission for each time that a visitor clicks on an ad.

Special software that can click on an ad repeatedly can be used to inflate a rival company's advertising costs or boost a site operator's own revenue gained from displaying the ads.

View: CBC (http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/03/02/tech-googleclickfraud-20070302.html?ref=rss)

[deshabhishek007]

nice one ankur,
but as far as a publisher is concerned.
i beleive that if i like any ones site then only simple way to pay him is to clik on ads. same way peoples do. so not neccessary that google ads or sponserer will surely get customer from those ads.
even sometime publisher has placed ads very cleverly.
so that by mistake user cliks on it.