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back to article Google sued for ad fraud

Google has been hit with a class action suit in California over its AdSense system. Private detective David Almeida accuses the search giant of confusing users of its ad system. The online registration process for AdWords (adverts placed on Google's search engine) also registers advertisers for AdSense (adverts on third party …

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  1. Jon
    Flame

    Idiots

    The plaintiff is an idiot who doesn't know what "default" means.*

    The complaint says that the idiot filled in a box labelled "default CPC bid" but left blank the box labelled "content CPC bid (optional)". (Para 12 in the complaint). Well duh, that makes your "content CPC bid" the same as your "default CPC bid".

    And his lawyers are a bunch of incompetent ambulance-chasers who can't even get the defendants name right. (Para 7 says "Network Solutions" instead of Google"). A class action for more than $5m? (Para 9). In their dreams. (US lawyers typically get around a third of the recovery; so they're dreaming of getting $1-2m for filing this garbage lawsuit)

    (Oh, and someone missed page 2 when they scanned the complaint? From the fax headers it looks like page 2 was faxed to the court, but it's missing in the PDF).

    * From http://www.answers.com/default&r=67: "default" means "The current setting or action taken by hardware or software if the user has not specified otherwise."

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Kent of Phorm will be happy then..

    Kent of Phorm will be happy then given he keeps banging on about Google etc as a way to cover up his slight of hand Phorm iterception for profit..

    NO Kent , we are not going to go away, no matter how much you try and play your unlawful business practices down.

    Phorm, NebuAD, the Orange wirless Phorming, and the "Experian to track net users" http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article3688387.ece are all on the shit list.

    but you Kent are top of the list due in part to your actions yesturday to your oponent at the Click! interview (on screen soon...)yesturday (see the CF thread).

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Those Crazy Americans!

    When will they learn?!

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  4. Alex
    Joke

    "industry standard"

    obviously the "universally understood meaning of an input box left blank". means "I am your meat eat me and then sell me"

    everyone knows that, its industry standard!

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  5. Phil
    Stop

    Pure rubbish.

    To quote:

    The case accuses Google of "redefining the universally understood meaning of an input box left blank".

    According to the complaint, the advertiser "selects the maximum daily budget and the maximum CPC bid". The maximum CPC bid has two options, "Default CPC bid" and "CPC content bid", the second of which is specified as "optional".

    To anyone with any sense, they should have read that as "optional maximum CPC content bid".

    To follow from the above quote, the "universally understood meaning of an input box left blank" is that the variable has no value. in the context of the CPC content bid input box, leaving it blank would say to me "there is no maximum CPC content bid". As such Google have every right to charge the advertiser what they want as the advertiser has not specified a maximum.

    Even though Google do not have a "no content ads" checkbox for opting out, they do give the advertiser the choice to specify a maximum cost for content ads of which 0 is a valid value. Almeider did not understand this concept yet stated in the complaint that the box is an optional value for the maximum CPC content bid and happily did not define a value for said maximum.

    However I am not a lawyer so how this would hold up in court I don't know...

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  6. Michael
    Flame

    Morons...

    That's right, if you don't learn how to use a system, you run the risk of getting unexpected results. WIthin google adwords, you have the ability to set a keyword or group of keywords to be search only, content only, or both, and can set a bid for each. TURN OFF THE CONTENT MATCHING, YOU FLAMING RETARD!

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  7. Tonto Popaduopolos
    Coat

    Warning contents are hot!

    If the residents of the former colonies need to be told when coffee is hot, and that vehicles may be closer than they appear in a car mirror then I have every confidence that this person will win.

    Mine is the one made from the union flag!

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