Google Slapped with Click Fraud Lawsuit - So What’s Really Going on Here?
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Some commentators have observed that the suit “falls just short of accusing Google of physically performing the click fraud itself,” this from Jason L. Miller at WebProNews. He raises the excellent point that “Click Defense…accusing Google of having a financial interest in not detecting click fraud is a little bit funny as Click Defense has a definite financial interest in nailing Google for it.”
On the other hand, this is not the first click fraud-related lawsuit that Google has had to defend against recently. The website LostClicks.com, created by lawyers Joel Fineberg, Dean Gresham and Stephen Malouf, was launched in late May to help them find click fraud victims for their class action lawsuit. Filed in the circuit court of Miller County, Arkansas, the class action names as defendants Google, Yahoo, Lycos, Ask Jeeves, FindWhat.com, Buena Vista Internet Group, LookSmart, America Online, Netscape and Time Warner. The lead plaintiffs named by the site are Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles and Caulfield Investigations.
The site’s accusations dovetail with Click Defense’s charges. To quote LostClicks.com: “We believe that the major search engines are seeking to conceal this problem [click fraud] and have not done enough to make their bills transparent and collect only for bona fide advertising. Clearly, the search engines have an economic disincentive to eliminating click fraud as it increases the revenue they collect.” And yet, the site has not yet generated as much buzz as you would expect for a hot topic. Its forums currently have only three registered users, and no posts.
Indeed, part of the issue is that it’s questionable just how strong a case can be made against Google. Click fraud itself is not always easy to detect. And Kevin Lee, chairman of search marketing firm Did-it.com, observed that it is “difficult to imagine that Google is not committed to reducing and eliminating click fraud, which ultimately reduces click prices due to poor conversion.” So how does one prove that Google has or has not been doing enough to prevent click fraud?
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