The Click Fraud Solution (OK, part of it)

Click-fraud could be Google's own Tsunami and the wave is getting higher and heading towards the shore. Seth Godin's post today may further help to clear the beaches. But I have a simple (partial) solution : # Google should require registration of users before they can click paid ads. # Users should be 'rated' based on how much registration information they provide - those who provide a verified name/address/demographic/email get rated higher than those who only provide an email, for example. # Advertisers should have their click-fees pro-rated against the rating of the user who clicks. Say the auction-set click fee is the base, and there is a 20% discount for no demographic data (just basic stuff like age/sex), and an 80% discount for free email only (the hotmail account users of the world). This of course assume a few things: # Google is going to keep all the reg data 1000% private. None of it goes to advertisers no matter how much they whine or pay. # Google creates a simple reg system that hackers can't trivially beat by just registering thousands of fake accounts. I don't know how they'll do it, but put all those PHDs to work! In this case, raising the bar against click fraud from the current 'none' to something substantial would be progress. It doesn't have to be perfect to be A LOT better than the current system. # Users have to get real. There will be the immediate and hysterical cries from the 'internet is free' and the 'I hate big brother' crowds. But if you have to at least take the time to come up with a fake name and password for the New York Times, isn't it reasonable to do so when you want to visit a web site that is paying for the right to have you visit? Google can leave organic result free and unregistered. But don't expect advertisers to pay for anonymous traffic when everybody knows that a large to very large % is fake. And worse, it's fake largely because there is no barrier (or law in many cases) against it being fake. The issues and implications of this are large and should be debated and a final set of solutions arrived at. The above is just an idea based on the premise that doing nothing, and hoping click fraud really isn't too bad or will go away, is no longer sufficient. Steps need to be take or PPC ads are going to get washed away. Update: I just found a site called whosclickingwho.com that claims to detect fraudulent clickers - either those who click repeatedly within a time period, or click into the same site from multiple click engines. Assuming this software works as advertised, why can't Google offer these features? (Here's a clickz article about them (written by the CEO) which still lends some credibility - I just found these guys 2 minutes ago so I'm not vouching for them yet.) Posted by Craig Danuloff at February 26, 2005 1:11 PM