you see, hitwise stopper counting "traffic" where the customer didn't actually click on anything… but a toolbar mimics an actual click, cuz the software resides inside the client.

read the updates on the bottom of the article, sounds like my old "trusted" pal CJ… if you turn in a cheater, they usually fire them and mention they were just about to toss them cuz they cracl staff was on the case already – but the onus is on the world. insiders would say they're doing all these things to assure quality… hmmm, but then why do researchers discover a remarkable amount of renewable (not good for the environment!) specturdular new cheaters?

Y is Bing's family member now, betting the red headed step child gets no ice cream, and who knows, something strict…. he might even have to rename his power drill.

I managed to get us free traffic there for several months that paid the slotting fee I got us for the next year. Then came the hard work to get us on the Microsoft Search site when it launched (a group effort). All advertising for both went through GoTo.

Yahoo bought Overture for $1.8BB and Yahoo served Microsoft Search paid ads. Personally, I thought it made more sense for Barry Diller's IAC to buy Overture in hopes of keeping both Yahoo and Microsoft paid search but Terry Semel wanted control of his advertisers. It turns out, so did Steve Ballmer so MSN launched AdCenter.

Now for a full turnabout, Carol Bartz didn't care about controlling her advertisers and Microsoft now controls both. Not only did Microsoft not pay $1.8BB for Overture, it paid nothing to Yahoo. Hmmmmm, who won this round?

We all like to joke that Orkut is big in Brazil. Does Google care that Facebook and MySpace beat Orkut? Nope, move on to the next project and keep make Google search best in class.

With google going dud on some of its services and little to none user support, microsoft is in a prime position to seduce unhappy google users. The timing couldn't be better actually. Two years ago would have been an uphill battle, now–many are ready and waiting for an excuse to jump the google ship.

It used to be that the third version said a lot. For Microsoft, version 1 barely worked and made money. Version 2 worked a little and made more money. Version 3 worked enough that people could use it and still made money. Just think of Windows. For Google, version 1 was great but made no money. Version 2 was better and made no money. Version 3 rocked and finally made money. Just think search. Google makes enough from search that it can forgo that equation. Microsoft has to build better products to start or that equation will kill it in today's Google world.

MSN is going to discover some things about Yahoo's dirty partners… partners that have made a lot of money for Y (while simultaneously reducing their advertiser's ROI)… that's gonna be a hurdle in this hugfest. Once MSN understands these partners, they're gonna have to decide which approach to take – swallow them and take the money (as Y has done for years) or rebuff them as low quality (as G has done for years). This one issue will determine whether advertisers benefit from this union – and the newsflash is, if advertisers don't benefit, ad revenue won't grow, and this will be a grand waste of time for everyone.

G gets it, two golden rules. One, give consumers quality, they'll click like mad and truckloads of cash comes in. Two, don't get so greedy that you let in bad ad distribution partners or your advertisers will spend less (because they make less). Frankly, it is that simple.

Y has done neither. MSN implants may make Y look more robusty, but does this surgery address either golden rule? Nope. It remains to be seen what MSN will do about the Y dist partners – put them proudly on display in a wet tshirt contest and continue to let the drunken howlers party, or find a little religion and get respectable.

Since the doctor's goal here was looks ($$$), I think I know where this is all headed.