Marketing Pilgrim

Did you happen to read the guest post we had on click fraud and how easy it could be for unscrupulous companies to create fraudulent clicks?

According to Business Week, Mike was on the money!

With enough Web pages and enough “zombie” computers, each clicking and receiving clicks just a few times a day, a hacker could create a tidy business that’s nearly impossible to detect, says Ken Dunham, a Web-security expert with Verisign-owned iDefense. “They’re bloodsucking mosquitoes, and you just can’t get them all,” says Dunham, who works with law enforcement officials to track down hackers and online con artists.

Jambo just announced a new billing model for businesses too lazy to set up a pay-per-call account - they’ll add the fee to your phone bill.

Can someone please tell the telecom companies to stop moaning that Google is enjoying a “free lunch”. Just because a more talented kid joined the game, you can’t take your football and go home.

Here’s the most interesting stats pulled from SER’s coverage of “The Search Landscape” session at SES.

* 24% of clicks on Google go to AdWords.
* 20% of search conversions happen during first session, 33% occured 5-8 weeks later.
* Google driving 11.1% of shopping/classified traffic, Yahoo ~5%, MSNsesny2006

I don’t recall the last WSJ article I read where I pretty much nodded my head in agreement to every word, but you MUST read Jason Fry’s take on the current status of blogging and the future of the medium.

Blogs will be everywhere in the near-future, but singling them out amid the Internet tumult will seem odd, like talking about one’s favorite commerce or community sites as a group. Media companies will use blogs to track fast-moving stories and bring some much-needed attitude and voice to their brands. Corporations will use them for updates and conversations with their own employees or customers.

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[While we're on the subject of click fraud, regular reader (and now, occasional contributor) Mike O'Krongli offers his thoughts on how click fraud could cause Google a lot of headaches. Anyone at Google care to drop us their thoughts on Mike's scary prediction?]

Affiliate programs were very popular and profitable for a short period of time in the late 1990’s but automated bots brought an end to that product. While Google has learned many lessons from that time, the sheer size and scale of the internet makes it more difficult to detect fraud. The internet criminal has also evolved and has many more tools in his box. I predict PPC will meet with the same fate as the early affiliate programs, only with larger monetary losses to more businesses.

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Call it what you want, Google appears to be testing a secure payment system at Google Base.

For buyers, this feature will provide a convenient and secure way to purchase Google Base items by credit card. For sellers, this feature integrates transaction processing with Google Base item management…we’re starting with a very small number of sellers and we expect to include more over the next several months.

That trembling you feel - no, a T-rex is not about to swallow you up - it’s the sound of eBay and PayPal quaking in their boots.

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Red Herring has details of the $6.5m just raised by TV search engine start-up MeeVee.

MeeVee, based in Burlingame, California, is a vertical search company focusing on television listings. Hoping to cash in on the interest in personalized entertainment, MeeVee promises its users a personalized TV guide. Unlike the one-dimensional pages of a TV guide, users get to see promotions and snippets of TV shows when they click on MeeVee’s listings.

MeeVee’s product is currently in beta right now and powers the TV sections of sites like SFGate.com, USA Today, Terra Lycos, and TV Now.

ClickZ’s Kevin Newcomb explores latest click fraud survey results from SEMPO.

While there appears to be increased awareness of click fraud, the actual instances of click fraud remain steady. It looks like more marketers are simply realizing they need to track it.

We also get confirmation that most click fraud comes from shady networks and publishers and not from your competitor clicking on your ad.

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If you’re expecting MP to have comprehensive blog coverage of SES NYC, you may be in for a shock. While it’s true I was the first to provide live blogging of Search Engine Strategies, I gave up that crown to Barry Schwartz a long time ago - I can’t compete with his quadruple coverage.
However, I do have something up my sleeve for SES NYC. If you’re interested in being part of my plan simply stop me at the show and ask “Yo Andy! Watcha working on for the show” and I’ll make sure you’re a part of it.
Tagged: sesny2006

Today we, finally, say goodbye to Ask’s butler and welcome a cleaner, more streamlined version of Ask.com.

As part of the rebranding to “Ask.com”, the search engine rolls-out a whole host of new features.

* New Homepage: A new sleek design, the page is cleaner and more straightforward.

* The Ask.com “Toolbox�?: Homepage shortcuts to more than 20 search tools, including maps, images, weather, dictionary, local and desktop search. The Toolbox is easily customizable to include the tools someone uses most. The Toolbox can be opened or closed depending on user preference.

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Over at the Fortune Interactive blog, VP of Technology Mike Marshall looks at how pre-installing Google on Dell computers will help the search engine marketing industry.