Google Adsense to Combat Clickfraud with New Business Model?

As clickfraud continues to eat a hole in the online advertising industry, Google Adsense executives are racking their brains to find a solution for this increasingly costly problem.

One possible solution, which has been proposed a number of times, would be a complete change in business model, and a move away from CPC (cost-per-click) marketing. In other words, Google would only charge advertisers (and pay publishers) in the event that a visitor actually made a purchase, completed a survey, or made some other action.

If this type of radical change occurred, clickfraud would no longer be a threat, and Google would save a lot of money on click tracking and pesky lawsuits. Such a move would also have other implications, however, which many supporters probably haven’t considered.

There are already countless affiliate networks operating on a CPA (cost-per-action) business model, with varying degrees of success. None, however, does as much business as Google Adsense.

The very fact that Google can operate a successful CPC program, commanding respect from publishers and advertisers alike, is what makes it unique in the internet marketing industry. If the Adsense program switched to a CPA model it would lose this unique selling point, effectively destroying the very meaning of its brand.

I sincerely hope that such a clever and innovative company as Google will have the sense to stick with a highly functional business model that’s generated billions in revenue over the past several years. After all, they didn’t get to where they are by being lazy or taking the easy way out.

Indian Government Deals Crippling Blow to Internet Free Speech

India has taken a great step towards increased censorship and restriction of free expression on the internet. The country’s Ministry of Communications recently ordered 17 blogs and websites blocked on the grounds that they contained “religious hatred.”

The government claimed that the sites in question accused Muslim terror groups of being behind the recent train bombings in the coastal city of Bombay. The list includes a number of conservative American blogs, including exposingtheleft.blogspot.com, which expresses somewhat controversial views about politics in the Middle East and the U.S. government’s “war on terror.”

ISPs have not only complied with the order, but blocked entire domains, including blogspot.com and others, sending shock waves through the Indian blogsphere.

It’s easy enough to get around the blocks using services like pkblogs.com, but it’s not so easy for Indians to get past the fact that their government has joined the ranks of China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, disallowing citizens from expressing their opinions in peace.

“If this isn’t censorship, I don’t know what is”, wrote on blogger by the name of Neha Viswanathan, noting that the specifically targeted websites merely express controversial and often unpopular opinions – not unlike the majority of free-thinking writers on the internet. There is no evidence whatsoever that any of the sites were promoting any actual violence against Muslims or anyone else.

This leads me to believe that the 17 sites in question were targeted at random, as an excuse to launch an assault on the blogsphere in general. Just as the United States, and to a lesser extent, Canada are doing, Indian authorities are using the problem of terrorism to their advantage in imposing their own controlling agenda on supposedly “free” citizens.

Whether freedom of speech and expression in India will be able to survive this outrageous attack depends largely on the determination of the country’s citizens and their ability to speak out against oppression.

Wired Magazine to Buy Wired.com for $25 Million

The publishers of Wired Magazine have agreed to pay $25 million for full ownership of Wired.com, which is currently owned by Lycos Inc., a well-known web portal.

This noteworthy sale of web property will mean “innovation and experimentation with new ways of doing media online,” according to Wired Magazine editor, Chris Anderson.

Conde Nast Publications Inc., which owns Wired and a number of other magazines, will now be able to make lucrative strides into the internet advertising industry, using Wired.com’s premier brand to its full advantage.

Google Strives to Further Improve Search Functionality

Despite Google’s dominant position in the search industry, the internet giant’s decision makers insist that search is not a “solved problem,” and that there is still much room for improvement.

“Our position is that search is a very hard problem. We have still a lot of work to do,” commented internal engineer, Douglas Merrill, noting that 70% of Google’s efforts still go into improving search, as opposed to developing other services.

“It is not enough to have the information, the information should be right,” Merrill went on to say. “Sometimes the problem is figuring out what the users mean, not what the user said.”

At this point, some of Google’s main projects include improving mobile web search, personalized search, and language translation features, as well as finding new ways to combat SEO spam.

By keeping its focus on core search functionality, the internet giant is demonstrating its belief that no search algorithm can be “too good,” while recognizing the continual progress of competitors. This goes to show that even the mighty Google must work hard to maintain the upper hand against rivals like Yahoo and Microsoft.

Geotargeting Technology Improves Local Advertising Prospects

For years, business owners have been trying to make use of web marketing to promote their locally specific small to medium sized business, but have all to frequently found themselves wasting valuable ad dollars.

The universal nature of the internet has historically made it very difficult to get a particular advertisement viewed exclusively by people in a particular city or region. This is gradually improving, however, as geotargeting technology becomes better and more precise.

Both Google and Yahoo, as well as many other PPC search engines and other advertising programs are now targeting ads not just to particular countries or languages, but to individual cities or even neighborhoods.

As this type of precise geotargeting technology becomes more prevalent and accurate, we can expect to see an increase in efficiency for local advertisers, and much less in the way of wasted ad dollars.

Chinese Government Plans to Tighten Control Over Blogs

China’s communist government is trying to even further restrict the internet activities of citizens by placing stricter controls on blogs and search engines to bar content that might be “immoral” or “unhealthy.”

“As more and more illegal and unhealthy information spreads through the blog and search engine, we will take effective measures to put the BBS, blog and search engine under control,” said Cai Wu, the director of China’s Information Office.

Specifically, Chinese authorities plan to develop monitoring technology to keep tabs on the country’s 37 million blogs, so as to stifle free thought and expression at every possible opportunity.

The Chinese government has also recently proposed a law that would block media (including blogs) from reporting on “sudden events” without first gaining approval. This means that authorities could (theoretically) prevent citizens from hearing any “inappropriate” news that might paint a negative picture of their regime.

The very fact that such restrictions are being considered suggests that China’s authoritarian decision makers are getting more and more intimidated by the unhindered exchange of thought and ideas that comes as a result of blogging. They are now fighting a desperate (and losing) battle against intellectual freedom in the information age.

Energy and Commerce Committee Schemes to Spy on Search

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee is currently investigating the idea of forcing search engines and other internet companies to maintain data about users for at least one year.

In theory, the information collected would be used solely to identify online sexual predators, but once the government has access to things like search data it is sure to go much farther than that.

Even aside from the blatant privacy concerns surrounding this sort of legislation, the government would expect search engines to put up massive amounts of storage space, the costs of which could run into the tens of millions of dollars and put a big dent in the industry’s profits.

Overall, even looking into this type of legislation will likely be seen as a major attack on internet freedom, further reducing the U.S. Government’s popularity among internet users and corporations alike.

The last time a government entity (the Department of Justice) tried something like this they ended up on the losing end of a court battle with Google. If American authorities are wise, they’ll avoid a lot of trouble this time round by avoiding this issue and minding their own business.