Did You Know?
According to Google's 2005 Annual Report, advertising revenue (which means revenue from Adwords represents 99% of Googles total revenue in 2004
Google is the largest and currently most popular search engine on the Internet, with an index reaching over 8 billion Web pages and close to 100 different language versions. Google's earnings more than quadrupled during the three months ended in June, climbing to $342.8 million, or $1.19 per share, from $79.1 million, or 30 cents per share, at the same time last year.
Google is paid when people click on the keyword-generated ads that appear next to search results. Not surprisingly, a lot of people try to game the system. On this page we will post Google comments as they make them on click fraud.
Google Comments:
Terry Semel, chairman and chief executive officer, said both forms of online advertising on which the company depends - search engine ads and "branded" messages - had risen strongly in the quarter, with branded advertising continuing to grow at a faster rate than the overall market.
Google CFO Say Click Fraud Needs Fast Fix
Top Google official said that growing abuse of the company's lucrative sponsored ad-search model jeopardizes the popular Internet search engine's business.
"I think something has to be done about this really, really quickly, because I think, potentially, it threatens our business model," Google Chief Financial Officer George Reyes said Wednesday.
Reyes, speaking at an investor conference sponsored by Credit Suisse First Boston, was referring to an illegal practice known as "click fraud" that occurs when individuals click on ad links that appear next to search results in order to force advertisers to pay for the clicks.
In recent months, Google has become increasingly vocal about the problem. In regulatory filings leading up to its initial public offering this summer, the company has reported that it has regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks.
"If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase," Google said in one of the filings.
Reyes' comments Wednesday appeared to the starkest yet by any Google executive that click fraud is becoming a serious problem.
In fact, he called click fraud the "biggest threat" to the Internet economy. "There's a lot of bad guys out there that are trying to take advantage of this and it costs, I'm sure not just us, but eBay and Yahoo! and Amazon and the whole crowd, you know, tons of money." |
