Google introducing several click-fraud prevention methods

Mountain View (CA) - In an effort to block fraudulent and invalid clicks on Google Ad links, Google will be adding several prevention methods. Starting this month, the search engine giant will allow advertisers to filter out suspicious IP addresses from seeing ads. The company will also create a web-based resource center that will educate people on click fraud. In the 2nd quarter, Google will release a standardized interface for reporting fraudulent clicks.

Click fraud is when a person intentionally clicks on a Google advertisement to either drive up commissions. But click fraud isn’t the only source of invalid clicks because some users mistakenly double-click on ads. Web crawlers, programs that scour websites for images and links, can also trip up Google ads.

Google ads often appear along the borders of popular websites and companies are paid a few cents for each click. Hiring people to click on ads could result in thousands of extra dollars in revenue for a website, but conversely also give huge losses to advertisers.

Google will allow advertisers to blacklist IP addresses that they deem to be suspicious. Surfers coming from those addresses will not even see the ad, which will prevent them from clicking on the link.

Google sends out a monthly invoice to both advertisers and websites. Later this month, those invoices will include money that Google did not bill because of invalid or fraudulent clicks.