Yahoo's Turn at the Bench?

[promomom]

I just collected my mail and found a letter from the a court in California.. lol, at first i was wondering what I did , but it turns there was a class action suit filed against yahoo.. they are claiming click fraud, click spam, invalid clicks,unwanted/unqualifed/improper clicks,

and for some reason they are claiming non converting and inadequately converting clicks..

overcharging class persons for clicks where users did not actively choose the class persons listing (is this where ad is obscured?)

Apparantly they have an idea for a settlement.. this is news to me.. anyone have any input/info on this in plain ol' english?

[Mpio]

If you feel you have a valid reason to pursue action against them, follow the instructions that were sent with the e-mail.

They'll probably just credit your account.

Click Fraud will always be there. It's part of the business. Google Search "Click Fraud Protection Software" and you'll be amazed at what turns up in the Search Results.

Some people claim it could pull down the whole industry if it continues on it's present course.

This is the Best Article I have found.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.01/fraud.html

Happy Reading

[promomom]

Oh, I well know some of my clicks have to be crap for some things. i dont even turn content on in yahoo..in google its set at 1 or 2 cents.

I was trying to make some sense of seven paper pages of legal mumbo jumbo

What I really wondered about though, is why they would claim non converting or inadequately converting clicks? This can't be a case of I didnt sell stuff so I want my money back..is it just covering all the bases?

[Mpio]

Sorry Promomom,

You'll have to read the papers and try and decipher the Legal Jargon yourself.

Besides Refunds :angry:

I hate Lawyers :throwup:

My Ex Wife Swears by them though! :finger:

[gen5media]

Non converting or inadequately convering clicks come from sites like this:
http://www.bestdiamonds.com/

Basically full of nothing but sponsored links. This is NOT a "content" site, it is a Yahoo "partner" site which you can NOT opt out of. If you are bidding on diamond related keyword in Yahoo, your ads WILL show on garbage sites like the one shown above and you have no say in the matter. This is a big part of this lawsuit and something that hopefully will put a dent in the click arbitrage syndicates that cost advertisers millions in worthless traffic every year.

[promomom]

Ah.. now that makes sense!

[mrosson]

Non converting or inadequately convering clicks come from sites like this:
http://www.bestdiamonds.com/

Basically full of nothing but sponsored links. This is NOT a "content" site, it is a Yahoo "partner" site which you can NOT opt out of. If you are bidding on diamond related keyword in Yahoo, your ads WILL show on garbage sites like the one shown above and you have no say in the matter. This is a big part of this lawsuit and something that hopefully will put a dent in the click arbitrage syndicates that cost advertisers millions in worthless traffic every year.

Are you sure? It looks content to me. Oh well, you could be right. It would explain some of the strange backlinks I'm getting on Google that seem to imminate from Overture listings on sites like that :innocent:

[celato]

I got the same thing in the mail from a campaign I did back in 2005. They're not necessarily suing for just click fraud. The suite states that Yahoo didnt take adequate measure to reduce or eliminate click fraud. Since the lawsuit has been filed Yahoo has supposedly installed filters, and click fraud tracking software to reduce it. Basically their biggest complaint is that Yahoo let it happen and didn't try and stop it. Why should they though, they get paid per click .. fraudulent or not. Thats what I took from it anyway. I signed up, but the only ones winning in this case are the lawyers ... they get like $14 million, and we will get something cheesy like a $50 advertising credit. :mooning:

- Celato

[brazielr]

There is so much Click fraud going on! It's impossible to stop it.

[thrawn]

I wouldn't be complaining if I got $50, however it doesn't seem like google's going to start getting sued anytime soon :(

[gen5media]

Are you sure? It looks content to me. Oh well, you could be right. It would explain some of the strange backlinks I'm getting on Google that seem to imminate from Overture listings on sites like that :innocent:

100% positive. One of my client's ads is on that site and 5 others run by the same company (all identical by the way). My client is not using content match on Yahoo and these 5 sites alone have cost them over $50,000 in clicks over the past 8 months or so.

[mrosson]

I wouldn't be complaining if I got $50, however it doesn't seem like google's going to start getting sued anytime soon :(

Actually, they already were :) It was a $90 Million settlement. Unfortunately, they had some ridiculously small window of opportunity to file the forms necessary to participate in the claim, and I was out of town and forgot about it. :shoot:

[promomom]

Well, i dont know if I want to participate in this one! They already murder my listings.. I don't wanna make them mad.. although I did contact them today and ask if they has ESL students editing listings.... :innocent: