In light of the recent Google and Yahoo click fraud settlements, one would think that click fraud was going to be more under control by these search giants. I just don’t see this as the case. Click fraud isn’t going anywhere, but rather those who take part in click fraud are simply getting more creative and smarter. Many online companies offer to pay employees to do nothing more than sit down and click on ads, or to type certain words into search engines for hours at a time. There are click fraud web forums where users can share their ideas, all in anonymity.

The search engines are getting very good at determining classic click fraud, such as clicking on an adword or sponsored listing, then hitting the back button and doing it over and over again. Also, they can now decipher the IP address of those clicking on an add and can see a pattern if the same IP address clicks on the same add time and time again. Thus, those who take part in this unethical and despicable act have come up with new practices to accomplish the goals of inflating competitor’s clicks, while extinguishing their budget. The other main goal is for web sites who have placed Google Ad sence Yahoo Content Match on their site to increase their revenue by fraudulently inflating the click rate on advertisers sites.

Just this week, the Washington Post reported, “From her home surrounded by cornfields in Dow City, Iowa, Jackie Park spends hours each day on her computer, earning half a penny every time she clicks on an Internet advertisement.”.

Google and Yahoo’s claims to have click fraud under control seems to be more of a PR statement than a statement of fact these days.