By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
April 16, 2008 03:17 PM
An Internet retailer that used a pay-per-click advertising service operated by Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is suing the Internet giant for more than $1 million, claiming it was overcharged by thousands of dollars as a result of click fraud that Yahoo did little to prevent.
Bigreds.com, which sells collectibles online, said it paid Yahoo's Search Marketing unit, formerly known as Overture Services, more than $900,000 between 2002 and 2006. The fees were based on the number of clicks that Bigreds ads received on sites affiliated with Yahoo and Overture.
Bigreds claims that many of the clicks were not from legitimate buyers but from affiliate Web site operators who received commissions from Overture and Yahoo based on the number of clicks their sites generated for advertisers.
"These clicks were not actual traffic, but were fraudulent clicks," Bigreds claims in court papers filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in New York. "Affiliates of Overture used software programs, employed people, and/or directed people other than actual customers to click on plaintiffs links from keyword search results," the complaint states.
Yahoo acquired Overture, which launched in 1998 as GoTo.com, in 2003.
Bigreds claims Yahoo in 2006 acknowledged the bad-click problem, but offered a refund of only $17,000. Bigreds also alleges that Yahoo's Overture unit had technology and information at its disposal that it could have used to prevent click fraud but did not take steps to do so.
"Overture was able to tell what was bad, who conducted the bad click, where it came from, what keyword was involved and generally had superior technology and access to records in its dominion that enabled Overture to determine what persons or entities or affiliates were involved," the suit claims.
Bigreds is seeking more than $1 million in damages and penalties. Yahoo has yet to file a formal response to the allegations.
Click fraud is one of the multi-billion dollar search marketing industry's dark secrets. Virtually all major players, including Yahoo, Microsoft and Google, have been forced to acknowledge the problem. Critics argue that search engines have little incentive to police the practice because much of their revenue is generated by ad clicks.
Yahoo in 2005 paid $4.5 million to settle a click fraud class action lawsuit. Google paid $90 million to settle a similar suit in 2006.
Das kann eigentlicht nur ein Scherz sein oder typisch USA? Der Onlineshop Bigreds.com will zwischen 2002 und 2006 immerhin 936.000 US-$ bei Yahoo Search Marketing ausgegeben haben. Jetzt verlangt man von Yahoo über 1 Millionen Dollar für den Schaden bzw. als Strafe. Es geht wohl in erster Linie um Besucher die über geparkte Seiten gekommen sind und nach Meinung des Advertisers nicht legitim waren. Yahoo soll 17.000 $ als Rückzahlung für nicht legitime Klicks angeboten haben.
Soweit so gut und auch nichts neues. Grade wenn man nicht direkt den Suchmaschinentraffic von Yahoo oder auch Google kauft, sondern mehr in Richtung Content-Netzwerke und auch geparkte Seiten geht, sollte man wirklich vorsichtig sein und genau schaun ob vom Traffic auch etwas konvertiert, aber in diesem Fall stellen sich doch erstmal ganz andere Fragen:
Warum sollte dort überhaupt jemals jemand gekauft haben? Ich habe selten einen unprofessionelleren Shop gesehen. Wie konnten die 936.000 $ für Werbung haben, aber keinen Dollar für ein hübsches Design und ein paar nette Texte?
