fragmentate's Journal: Google Analysis of Click-Fraud Inaccuracy

This morning Google released information about their analysis of the exaggerated click-fraud numbers. Without pointing fingers, they mention that click-fraud analysis companies need to clean up their methods. From the post, "A rigorous technical analysis by Google engineers has found fundamental flaws in the work of several click fraud consultants - flaws that help explain why widely quoted estimates of the size of the click fraud problem are exaggerated." They even point out some obvious shortcomings of the methods used. The entire report is in a document (PDF) containing their complete analysis. It's an interesting read if you're in this market. Often there is a lot of FUD involved in pushing click-fraud detection products. Although the problem with click-fraud does exist, exaggerating it doesn't help anyone except the fly-by-night operations in it for a quick buck.

This story is related to a previous release on Slashdot. Looks like Google took the initiative here.