Ask.com Getting Sued Over Click Fraud

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Ask Jeeves (Ask.com) parent company IAC Search & Media Inc. over failing to prevent "click fraud" on advertisements purchased from the company.

Put simply, "click fraud" occurs where a person or program clicks on an advertisers sponsored listing in an attempt to defraud an advertiser who pays a CPC (cost-per-click) each time the listing is clicked on.

Details of the class action lawsuit are revealed below in an email send to ask advertisers:

"If you purchased online advertising from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. (collectively "Ask") between August 1, 2005 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane's Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. Ask Jeeves, Inc. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice advises you of your legal rights.

You should review the detailed Settlement Notice as soon as possible, as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with a proposed settlement of the class action lawsuit. Your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice.

The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court's certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.

The proposed settlement will provide advertising credits to class members who certify that they were the victims of "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements purchased from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. on or after August 1, 2005.

The proposed settlement will resolve claims that IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by failing to adequately detect and stop "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.

If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act.

For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at www.AskSettlement.com.
To file a claim for your award of advertising credits under the settlement, click on the following link: AskSettlement.com/claim. Each advertiser will be allowed one claim per account."

According to Wikipedia, "Lane's Gifts and Collectibles" also raised a successful suit against Google in March 2006 in which Google agreed to a $90m settlement fund in a class action filed by the company.

This legal challenge may act as a wake up call to other advertising networks over the need to proactively prevent and detect click fraud in their advertising programs. If the case affects you, we'd love to hear your thoughts via our blog comments.

Source: www.ineedhits.com

Google Grants (Beta) - Free Advertising to Non-Profits

Google Grants (Beta) is a scheme to provide free AdWords advertising to non-profit organizations. There are some default Ads for some non-profitable organizations, these Ads usually shown when there is no suitable AdWords ad available for searchers. Google selects Ads randomly for its Google Grant scheme.

Google says: "In-kind advertising for non-profit organizations"
"The Google Grants program supports organizations sharing our philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.

Designed for 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, Google Grants is a unique in-kind advertising program. It harnesses the power of our flagship advertising product, Google AdWords, to non-profits seeking to inform and engage their constituents online. Google Grants has awarded AdWords advertising to hundreds of non-profit groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education.

Google Grant recipients use their award of free AdWords advertising on Google.com to raise awareness and increase traffic. Three of our award recipients have achieved these results:

• Room to Read, which educates children in Vietnam, Nepal, India and Cambodia, attracted a sponsor who clicked on its AdWords ad. He has donated funds to support the education of 25 girls for the next 10 years.
• The US Fund for UNICEF's e-commerce site, Shop UNICEF, has experienced a 43 percent increase in sales over the previous year.
• CoachArt, supporting children with life-threatening illnesses through art and athletics programs, has seen a 60 to 70 percent increase in volunteers.

Each organization awarded a Google Grant receives at least three months of in-kind advertising."

Know more about Google Grants

Windows Live SkyDrive-Beta - A New Online Storage

Microsoft has launched its online storage service names Microsoft SkyDrive (beta). You can use this service with Windows Live (hotmail) ID. SkyDrive provides 1 GB Storage space that you can access from anywhere in the world. You can access this service from any web browser i.e., Internet Explorer 6 or higher, Firefox 1.5 or higher. You can avail this service whether you are windows or Mac. computer user. SkyDrive has flexibility to creat your own folders and make them private or share the information with others or you can make your folder public that anyone can view your files.

Try it Now ... Windows Live SkyDrive - Beta

Upcoming referrals changes in Google Adsense

Are you currently displaying a referral unit for AdSense on your website? Then read on, because there are some upcoming changes to the referral program that you should be aware of. But first let me clarify that only referral units promoting AdSense will be affected by this change; referrals to other products and services remain unaffected at this time. This change to referrals promoting AdSense will differ depending on your location, regardless of where your users are located.

- If you're in North America, Latin America, or Japan, the pricing structure for AdSense referrals is changing.

About a year ago, as an experiment, we changed the pricing structure for AdSense referrals so that when a user you referred to the program earned $5 within 180 days of sign-up, you would also earn $5. When that publisher earned $100 within 180 days and removed all payment holds, you'd receive $250. We have decided to conclude this experiment and return to the original pricing structure. As a result, we'll soon no longer be offering the $5 bonus or $2000 bonus, and the payout for referring a user who generates $100 with AdSense in the first 180 days will return to $100.

These pricing changes will take place during the last week of January. A referred user who reaches $100 within 180 days of signing up and who removes all payments holds before the change occurs will generate earnings of $250 for the referring publisher. Any referred user who meets this conversion criteria after the change occurs will only generate $100 in earnings for the referring publisher. In addition, the $5 bonus will be removed at that time. Please note that the date a user was referred will only affect where the 180-day window is set but not necessarily the payout the referring publisher receives. For example, it's possible that a user referred in early January will meet the conversion criteria before a user referred in early November, and so the resulting payout may differ.

- If you're outside of North America, Latin America, and Japan, AdSense referrals will be retired.

For publishers not located in any of the three regions detailed above, we'll soon be retiring referrals promoting AdSense. We've found that this referral product has not performed as well as we had hoped in these regions. Again, please keep in mind that you can still generate referrals for the other products listed under the 'Referrals' section of your AdSense Setup tab.

Soon, you'll no longer see the option to create a referral button for AdSense in your account, although existing buttons will display as normal. This specific referral type will then be retired during the last week of January - any users who meet the conversion criteria (reaching $100 in earnings within 180 days of sign-up and removing all payment holds) before the change will generate earnings of $250 for the referring publishers. Any conversions which occur after this change is made will not be recorded in your account. You may wish to begin replacing any existing referrals promoting AdSense with referrals for another product or an AdSense for content unit.

We appreciate your support of this referral product, and hope it won't cause you any inconvenience.

Article Source : Google Adsense Blog

Google Goes Reading for Text in Images

Once upon a time, using images on a web page to display text was a major SEO "no-no" as search engines were unable to index pictures and graphics. A Google patent application suggests that "text in image" indexing may soon be a reality.

As revealed by a Google patent application that surfaced this week, the search giant is working on OCR (optical character recognition) technology that could revolutionize the future of search.

The concept behind the patent application could see Google indexing text in any "digital images" which would significantly increase the search engine giant's index and improve the search-ability of its various other media search databases (image, video etc).

According to the "Recognizing Text In Images" application:

"Digital images can include a wide variety of content. For example, digital images can illustrate landscapes, people, urban scenes, and other objects. Digital images often include text. Digital images can be captured, for example, using cameras or digital video recorders. Image text (i.e., text in an image) typically includes text of varying size, orientation, and typeface. Text in a digital image derived, for example, from an urban scene (e.g., a city street scene) often provides information about the displayed scene or location. A typical street scene includes, for example, text as part of street signs, building names, address numbers, and window signs."

The real draw card of this technology is the potential impact it could have on Google's universal search. Suddenly more of its indexed content becomes accurately searchable and this allows for a greater level of convergence between Google's various search services.

While the technology is probably some time off (so don't abandon your commitment to using text for SEO purposes), accurate "text in image" search does open up a world of possibilities. Stay tuned to see when Google puts its patent application into action.

News Source: INeedHits.com

Google Changes its Ranking Algorithm?

In the New Year, Google seems to be changing their algorithm and making the search results more time related. The leading search engine has been ranking items from popular sites like Digg higher than factual or historical sites like Wikipedia. Is this a move towards a Web 3.0? In other news, Kara Ratliff reports that Yahoo’s Chief Performance Expert, Steve Souders plans on joining the Google team on January 7th, 2008. For more details of the news, keep watching WebProNews.



Find more at: http://videos.webpronews.com/2008/01/07/google-changes-algorithm

Interesting Search Trends from Google, Yahoo & Ask.com for 2007

Google, Yahoo! and Ask.com have released their end of year guides to the hottest online searches in 2007. The guides detail the fastest rising (and falling) search queries conducted throughout the year.

Google
Google's popular end of year roundup, the Google Zeitgeist, receives its own micro site on Google.com which can be seen here. Google break down their top searches into different categories, but provide an overall summary of the fastest rising and falling searches on Google.com.

Fastest Rising (global)

1. iphone
2. badoo
3. facebook
4. dailymotion
5. webkinz
6. youtube
7. ebuddy
8. second life
9. hi5
10. club penguin

Fastest Falling (global)

1. world cup*
2. mozart
3. fifa
4. rebelde*
5. kazaa
6. xanga
7. webdetente
8. sudoku
9. shakira
10. mp3
*featured in 2006 fastest-rising list

For U.S. residents, you may also be interested to see how your searching habits compare to that of the rest of the world.

Fastest Rising (U.S.)

1. iphone
2. webkinz
3. tmz
4. transformers
5. youtube
6. club penguin
7. myspace
8. heroes
9. facebook
10. anna nicole smith

Yahoo!
Yahoo! was the first search engine to release their "Top Trends in Search" report for 2007. Like Google, Yahoo! breaks down their top search queries into different categories.

News Stories - top 10 news stories

1. Saddam Hussein
2. Iran
3. Iraq
4. President George W. Bush
5. Oil and Gas prices
6. Barack Obama
7. Hillary Rodham Clinton
8. San Diego Fires
9. Afghanistan
10. Virginia Tech

Grass is Always Greener - top 10 environmental searches

1. Recycling
2. Global Warming
3. Freecycle
4. Earth
5. Pollution
6. Al Gore
7. Environmental Protection Agency
8. Live Earth
9. Hybrid Cars
10. Solar Energy

Celebrity Downslides - top 10 troubled stars

1. Britney Spears
2. Paris Hilton
3. Anna Nicole Smith
4. Vanessa Anne Hudgens
5. Nicole Richie
6. Amy Winehouse
7. Rosie O'Donnell
8. Tara Conner
9. Michael Vick
10. Owen Wilson

It's always hard to directly compare search engines as the categories used often differ somewhat, so for a full recap on the Yahoo! trends head over to the Yahoo! website: http://buzz.yahoo.com/toptrends2007/

Ask.com
While MSN are yet to release their 2007 trends, Ask.com have been the only major search engine to give an overall top 10 list, so here it is:

Ask.com's Top Searches of 2007

1. MySpace
2. Dictionary
3. Google
4. Themes
5. Area Codes
6. Cars
7. Weather
8. Games
9. Song Lyrics
10. Movies

Posted on the Ask.com blog, the list is followed by an interesting comment;

"Yep, MySpace was the big one...In fact, I believe it was #1 last year as well. Bebo? Orkut? Facebook? Nowhere to be found. The other nine are a pretty good survey of how people use the Internet.

...Including a certain competitor/partner in the #3 slot. But what can we say? Our list is as straight as it comes--we tell it like it is. And maybe--just maybe--if *other* search engines showed us their lists of top searches...we might see Ask.com in theirs as well."

For a full rundown on Ask.com top searchers, including other categories, visit the Ask.com blog.

So there you have it, the top searches you conducted during 2007. Do you think the lists accurately reflect online buzz during the year? We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Source : ineedhits.com