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July 17, 2005

Creative New Uses For AdSense Clickfraud

A letter written to DMNews brings up some interesting points about Google AdSense. The writer talks about how the ongoing lawsuit over clickfraud on Google AdWords has made Google hypersensitive to any level of fraud on their ad networks, including AdSense.

According to the letter, AdSense accounts can be quickly shut down if any level of fraud is detected, leaving the publisher with little recourse and a dried-up revenue stream. If true, the potential implications are obvious. Anyone can easily disable anyone else's AdSense program with a bit of repetitive clicking.

It's still speculative as to whether this is really the case. First, I hope that Google has some method to differentiate clickfraud that's designed to disable an account from clickfraud that's designed to fleece Google. Second, it's questionable just how big a problem this could be, since all you're doing is depriving someone of a revenue stream - there's no immediate financial benefit to the perpetuator.

Of course, those businesses that depend on Adsense for a big chunk of their income may be vulnerable should someone decide to target them.

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