On: Inside Google's Secret War Against Ad Fraud

[Scoundreller]

I'm not so sure. I always figured the cost per click would drop accordingly. If fraud is 50%, advertisers would only bid 50% for a click/impression, and it would be a wash in the end for the advertiser and Google.

I think the real hit is against content creators who aren't able to extract the full value of their work, instead they split the revenue pool with a bunch of adspam sites.

[antsar → Scoundreller]

Couldn't Google keep cost-per-click artificially high, benefiting themselves at the expense of advertisers?

[Scoundreller → antsar]

I think they're too ethical and just charge whatever their auction system calculates.

Google wants advertisers to be sustainable, not bankrupt them as soon as possible.