Online Search: Ad Fraud and Relevance
November 13, 2013
Do you click on ads? Do you recognize ads? The dominance of Google translates to big money for capturing Google users’ attention.
How big of a problem is online fraud? There is a partial answer in the write up “Inside Ad Tech Fraud: Confessions of a Fake Web Traffic Buyer.” In addition to the revelations about online click fraud, the write up contains some fascinating quotations; for example:
Quality didn’t really matter to us, though.
I learned other things from the article as well. I know that the information in the story is accurate. Why would distorted or fraud-related information appear in a story about online? I underlined this statement:
I believe publishers are willing to do anything to make their economics work.
The word “anything” is an interesting one.
A few years ago, a colleague in New York City wanted my team to prepare a seminar about online ad fraud. I refused. Among the reasons was the simple fact that I wanted to avoid the pushback from “experts.”
As a result, I have avoided direct involvement in the methods that allegedly manipulate people like you, gentle reader. More recently, I have adopted the ostrich posture. I ignore what is now the norm. I prefer to live in a make believe world in which information is straight and true.
Life is simpler for me now. Online advertising is just so special. Online content benefits from the influence of advertising-supported information. Why pay for a commercial online service when the world is a click away. Ads make the content possible. In fact, ads are the point of content, right?
Stephen E Arnold, November 13, 2013
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