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Game, Set, Match, Yahoo!

Nov 8, 2006
by

Want to read a nice piece on why the Yahoo! Checkmate lawsuit is bad for advertisers? Check out Checkmate: Yahoo Closes Door on Click Fraud by Jeff Molander, in which he details how the lawsuit is a huge win for Yahoo! and not for the advertisers who have been paying for click fraud all along.

If you’ve paid for advertising on Yahoo between January 1998 and July 31,1006 you’re automatically a part of the Class which effectively voids (releases) the claims of advertisers over an 8 year period. Again, if you’ve done nothing (that includes not even having heard of this lawsuit) the settlement’s release, in this case, will let Yahoo! off the hook for any fraudulent (or worse “unwanted”) clicks it may have sent your way. Advertisers: You have no further recourse, no refund or guarantee for credit and a claims process that will keep you busy for months… never mind the expense you’ll generate in attempting to claim your advertising CREDITS.

According to the settlement document, Class advertisers release (meaning they forfeit their right to pursue) Yahoo! BROADLY from “challenged clicks.” This is a term defined to cover all “un-wanted clicks” and other broad categories. Think about that for a minute.

Porter suggests advertiser satisfaction will now hinge not only on controlling syndication fraud (being challenged based on contract law) and click fraud but controlling impression fraud.

That is, advertisers who are paying attention and not factoring all kinds of fraud, unwanted clicks, etc. etc. as a cost of doing business.

Much to much stuff for me to cover here, read the blog. This affects everyone who advertises using PPC, Google and Yahoo! are effectively getting rid of their click fraud problem, while it is still here for everyone else.

I have never used Yahoo! or Overture for PPC, but I did sign up earlier this year, and I received the lawsuit notices in the mail. I never thought much about them until now.

Filed under: Online Marketing
  • Big Earl

    This makes me so angry. This is a perpetual get out jail free card……

    http://digg.com/tech_news/Checkmate_Yahoo_Closes_…

  • http://www.game9th.com game9th

    Economy 2.0 | The New World You Will Never Step Foot In!

    There is a new burgeoning economy that I call it Economy 2.0. This new economy is a growing, it is global, and, according to a recent story in the New York Times, sweat shops in China have already been setup to start profiting from it. The interesting thing about "Economy 2.0" is that you have probably never heard about it, never stepped foot in it, and it is 100% virtual.

    Although some of the transactions in Economy 2.0 happen on eBay, I am not talking about the people buying and selling real goods and services, these transactions don't actually take place in the World you live in. Massive multi-player online games (MMOs or MMOGs), like Everquest, World of War Craft, Ultima Online and Second Life each have their own virtual worlds, and these virtual worlds are creating virtual economies. By some estimates, the traffic in virtual goods is worth as much as $880 million in real cash every year.

    Stick with me here, this gets really interesting.

    Each of these virtual worlds have their own currency and these currencies can be bought and sold with real dollars, yen, euros or pounds. In fact, some sites are being setup now to actually track the valuations of these currencies. Want to know the value of 1 Million WOW Gold pieces, or linden dollars compared to US dollars? GameUSD.com will tell you!

    Not only can you take out your credit card and buy currency for the games, you can also buy anything from high level characters and game items like clothing, swords, and shields. Some games like Second Life, are totally setup to be a virtual economy allowing you to buy virtual land, develop it, and resell it. Anshe Chung, dubbed "The Virtual Rockefeller", currently makes over $150,000 US buying virtual acres, developing these plots, and reselling them.

    Most of the transactions are between players and happen in exchanges like eBay. Other sites have been setup to specifically for this function, ige.com, Game9th.com, etc…. In a typical transaction, one player sells and item to another and they arrange to meet up somewhere specific in the game and make the agreed upon trade. Sony has setup Station Exchange, it's own trading site for their Games, and saw $180,000 in transactions in the first 30 days.

    Are your kids playing these games? Join them! You might just find a new virtual business between ogre battles!

    It's a brave new world. Crank up those avatars and welcome to the next global economy, Economy 2.0!