I spoke at length yesterday with Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google’s Business Product Manager, Trust & Safety, about “click fraud.” The opportunity to go beyond formulaic public relations statements yielded interesting tidbits of insight into how Google accounts for valid vs. invalid clicks and on its mechanisms for detecting “fraudsters.” Barry Schnitt, Google spokesperson, was also on the phone.

This web analytics expert asks how accurate Google AdWords is and how the company handles possible errors.

Click fraud auditing firms can't count, according to a report issued Tuesday by Google.

Botnets are being used for Google Adword click fraud, according to security watchers.

Remember Google Analytics? The new free Google version of Urchin which lets webmasters track user behavior and conversions on their sites and also has seamless AdWords to Conversion ROI tracking integration?

Sofizar, a company specializing in Click Fraud Detection Services announced today that it has identified a vulnerability in Google’s Pay Per Click ( PPC ) location based advertisements. The Google location based service is meant to display Pay Per Click ( PPC ) advertisements only in the advertiser designated locations. However, a back door allows a malicious user or automated programs in a non designated area to click on the advertisement, potentially causing grievous losses. Furthermore, Google charges the advertisers for these clicks, even though Google does not record the advertisement impression. This vulnerability has been reported to Google.

The potential for fraud when buying pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google's Adwords network has been covered extensively, but Google's anemic and dissatisfactory response to advertiser needs in the face of fraud has garnered far less attention. Google's difficulty in controlling this fraud and keeping pace with the technology used to perpetuate it is understandable, but their slow response to the problem is inexcusable. Many Adwords customers depend on Google for a significant share of their revenue and Google does not yet seem to understand that they must respond rapidly to their clients’ needs.