Google, whose $13 billion in revenue mainly comes from clicks on ads, plays down click fraud.
Meanwhile, the rate of fraudulent clicks was 15.8% in the second quarter of 2007, up 1% from three months earlier. Plus, Click Forensics estimates that more than 25% of all clicks were fraudulent, up from about 22% in the previous quarter.
Forbes’ Andy Greenburg talks to Google’s Senior Product Manager Shuman Ghosemajumder about this issue in the article Counting Clicks.
As long as Google keeps making their billions, they’ll keep playing click fraud down. I would too if I were in their shoes :).