Marketing Pilgrim

ZDNet is reporting the big three search engines have agreed to settle accusations that they were promoting illegal internet gambling.

The deal with the US Justice Department totals $31.5 million, with the money going to public service announcements about illegal gambling…

Microsoft will pay $4.5m to the US government, $7.5m to the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and provide $9m worth of public service advertising…Yahoo’s settlement of $7.5m includes forfeiting $3m to the US government and providing $4.5m worth of online ads for a public service advertising campaign. Google will pay $3m, the department said.

Now, here’s a question for you. How much money do you think Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft made off of illegal gambling ads? I suspect this settlement was as favorable to the search engines as the click fraud one.