he first television advertisement was screened in 1941, advertisers wanted to know how many eyeballs they were getting for their money. Television companies were at first reluctant to tell them. However, during the 1950s and 1960s, proper rules, ratings and standards were gradually introduced.

Things are supposed to move more quickly on the internet. But the big internet firms seem to have been worryingly complacent. Small-business owners, to whom click-fraud is most apparent, grumble that Google and Yahoo! have tried to play down the scale of the problem. Eric Schmidt, the boss of Google, caused a storm earlier this year when he seemed to suggest at a conference that one solution to click fraud would be to "let it happen", since advertisers would not be prepared to pay as much for bad clicks, so reducing commissions and hence the incentive for fraud. He also joked that Google's engineers were having "great fun" trying to keep ahead of the fraudsters. And Yahoo! concedes that click fraud has been a problem for years.

Stung by class-action suits, both Google and Yahoo! now insist they are taking the problem more seriously and have agreed to go along with an industry plan to draw up new standards and set up an independent auditing system to reassure advertisers by the middle of 2007 ()see pages 86-90. Both now provide refunds to advertisers who spot dodgy-looking referrals. Like recalcitrant teenagers, they are grudgingly giving in and doing the homework they should have done ages ago. But as well as shoring up the current system, internet firms must also devote more attention to developing new models that are less vulnerable to fraud, such as pay-per-action, in which advertisers pay up only if visitors referred to their websites actually buy something. Such new models will also require rules and standards to ensure that advertisers get what they pay for.

That will be difficult. But if the internet giants don't deliver what the advertisers want, advertisers will find other ways to market themselves. And if the advertisements evaporate, so will that remarkable $150 billion valuation.

内容摘要：

The article discusses the concern that "click fraud" may undermine the internet advertising industry. Affiliates that advertise on internet firms (i.e. Google) can generate a stream of false commissions by repeatedly clicking advertisements on their own websites. Click fraud is also aimed at the competition: click on a rival company's advertisements, displayed on websites or alongside the results of an internet search, and its advertising budget will swiftly be exhausted.

责任编辑:gaoyan