Facebook Click Fraud Enraging Advertisers

Facebook has a big revenue target this year – $550 million, according to investors who were pitched in the last round of funding. That’s nearly twice 2008 revenues of $280 million.

A big part of that revenue comes from cost-per-click advertising from small self serve advertisers. And right now those advertisers aren’t very happy. They’ve been complaining about click fraud of up to 100% for weeks, and the situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

Scores of complaints can be found at WickedFire, where advertisers are complaining of massive click fraud and an indifferent Facebook. A few of the recent posts (excuse the language):

Tracking 202 is telling me 11 clicks….Facebook is telling me 145. That’s way off the 15-20%, is there a different margin for tracking 202 than there is prosper 202 or did I suffer from one of those click bots?

Sucks how high the numbers are today. Its clear the problem is getting worse daily. I’ve moved most of my shit off facebook for the time being and magically my shit is all positive again. Crazy how that works. There are lots of places to buy traffic, some that will even actually give you the traffic you are paying for. Facebook is never going to admit to whats going on. I can almost guarantee you that.

Facebook is still reporting 20% more clicks than I actually get. This is bullshit. If I were at least getting bot traffic or something that would be one thing, but right now Facebook is simply stealing 20% of clicks that I paid for, which adds up to thousands of dollars. Someone should threaten legal action, this is straight up fraud on Facebook’s part.

FB click fraud update: ratio is now EXACTLY 10:1. 10 clicks reported on FB, 1 click on prosper. No, this wasnt on a small scale either. Were talking 1000’s of clicks. Have fun facebook. Im checking out till you can fix this shit.

I’m targeting small, specific demos, Facebook reports exactly twice as many clicks as hit my LP. Facebook is stealing our money, fuck this shit.

This is experienced by not just those that use 202. When in doubt, look at your raw apache logs – which I did. The result: 15% – 20% clicks never make it to my LP. Clearly a case of click-fraud going on. Tested on 3 different servers at 3 different DCs (not a network issue).

These aren’t the standard click fraud complaints that advertisers have leveled against search engines for years. In those cases, bots are racking up the fake clicks, which obviously never convert to any sort of purchase or other action. But at least the advertisers see the clicks.

In this case advertisers are saying that Facebook is recording and charging for clicks that don’t exist at all, even from bots. Their tracking software (many use Prosper202, but others are using raw Apache logs) shows one set of numbers, which is 20% – 100% lower than what Facebook is recording.

According to the WickedFire posts Facebook isn’t officially acknowledging the problem or giving any refunds so far. But they are asking some advertisers to send in logs to show the discrepancy. So far, advertisers who go to the trouble to do this aren’t getting the response they wanted: “I was asked to send in my logs so I spent over an hour compiling logs over the time period in question, and they replied with their fucking scripted bullshit. I was sooo fucking pissed, since I took the time to do that and they churn out a 2 second response.”

We have an email in to Facebook for comment. Image is from a 2006 BusinessWeek report on click fraud.

This post has been written by Michael Arrington on June 21, 2009 couresy of techcrunch.com.

DIY Robot Voice Modulator makes it that much easier for you to cover Styx

Yes, you could just run out and buy a vocoder, but they’re kinda pricey and this way is so much more fun! Using an IKEA clock, a fluorescent desk lamp, an HT8950 voice modulator, a condenser microphone and some miscellaneous stuff you’re crafty self is bound to have just laying around, you can make one of your own! Doesn’t look terribly complicated to us, but then, we love things that are terribly complicated. Get to it, sirs — hit the read link for full instructions. Dōmo arigatō.

[Via Make]

This post has been written by Laura June on Jun 21st 2009 at 4:35AM couresy of engadget.com.

Mythic wages WAR in the East

While NCsoft prepares to invade the West with Aion this September, Mythic has their own preemptive RvR strike planned for the East. Both Mythic and Gigamedia are bringing Warhammer Online to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on June 25th. This means people can now play WAR in North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. That’s quite a global presence.

It will be interesting to see what impact this has on WAR‘s subscriber count in the next quarter. When WAR originally launched in September 2008, they sold over 750,000 copies. That number dropped to 300,000 by December 2008. After a couple big marketing campaigns (recruit a friend and re-enlistment) and a launch in Russia, WAR’s numbers held steady at 300,000 in March 2009.

Could this Eastern launch propel them beyond the 300,000 mark again? Based on all the Land of the Dead coverage and impressions we’ve seen, the new live expansion should have some sort of positive effect on the game as well. I guess we’ll have to wait until the next EA earnings call to find out, which should take place in August.

This post has been written by Brooke Pilley on Jun 20th 2009 at 8:00PM couresy of massively.com.

Flip Has Little Chance In An iPhone World

As successful as Pure Digital has been with their Flip line of video cameras – selling $150 million worth of them last year – they face a new type of threat that the can’t defeat. The video capable iPhone, and video mobile phones in general, will make them irrelevant in the next couple of years.

Flip cameras have really grown on me. A year ago I didn’t see any point in it, since most point and shoot cameras did everything the Flip could do at the same or better price point, and they took good pictures, too. The Flip was very simple to use, but the software wasn’t so great and it didn’t play well with Macs. I didn’t see the point in carrying the extra device.

But at the end of last year Flip released the Mino HD and everything changed. The device was a lot smaller than most point and shoot cameras, and took way better video (1280 x 720 high definition video v. 640 x 480 on most point and shoot cameras). They also fixed the software to work well with Macs. And the joy of taking a device out of the box – no cords or wires at all – was real. Their $590 million exit to Cisco was well deserved. I now love my Flip camera, and not just because the company sent me a check for $1.3 million.

Along the way Pure Digital fought ridicule from the big video camera companies, who said nobody would want the device. Then, once Pure Digital proved the market, all those competitors jumped in with their own offerings. There are now many devices with similar tech specs as the Flip, but Pure Digital has managed to stay ahead of them all by innovating faster.

Flip Can’t Beat The iPhone

That’s just not something they’re going to be able to do v. the iPhone and other similar devices to come.

The new iPhone takes very good video (640 x 480). That isn’t as good as the Flip, but it’s still able to shoot perfectly good videos on the go (example), which is exactly what the Flip is for. And the iPhone has something that the Flip will never realistically have, cellular and wifi connectivity that lets you upload your videos immediately. No need to sync back with your base computer to edit the video and upload it. You can do basic editing right on the iPhone, and publish it to YouTube immediately. As an added bonus, that video can be geo-stamped via the phones GPS capability.

That makes it significantly more useful as a video device than the Flip, and worth the reduction in quality. You already have to make some quality tradeoffs with the Flip anyway, so if you are going to have a second video device after your iPhone, it may as well be a slightly bigger video camera that you keep in your bag. I just don’t see people grabbing that Flip when they run out the door.

And one last killer feature of the iPhone – live streaming video from services like Ustream and Qik are already a reality – most TechCrunch authors have been using it for months on the old iPhone. At some point soon Apple will allow those apps to launch, and iPhone users will be able to stream video in real time from their phones to the Internet.

The Flip still costs less than the iPhone, and the transition will be gradual. But most everyone carries a phone anyway. And within a couple of years video will be as ubiquitous on those phones as photos are today. Flip won’t have a chance.

Or do they?

Flip As A Brand v. Flip As A Device

Last year I wrote about a possible way for Amazon to fork it’s Kindle business to really dominate the e-book market: build signature devices and actually pay ODMs to use the software in a unique reverse-licensing model:

Imagine if Amazon launched a licensing program that gave hardware manufacturers the ability to build Kindle clones, along with an incentive to sell them at near-zero margins. Amazon would give those manufacturers access to the core Kindle hardware specs (there’s no real magic there anyway) and the right to call it a Kindle device so long as they also put the core Kindle software on the device. That software links the device to Amazon’s store, meaning downloads revenue flows through Amazon.

Flip could do something similar – leverage its brand to convince handset manufacturers to Flip-certify their devices.

Garmin, facing stiff competition for its GPS devices from mobile phones, is doing exactly this: “the nuvifone is Garmin’s entry into the cellular phone market and considered key to the company’s future. Cell phone carriers have increasingly been chipping away at Garmin’s market, adding navigational features to their phones.”

There’s no reason why Cisco shouldn’t work with handset makers to make them “Flip certified” – high quality video hardware plus the awesome Flip software installed right on the phone.

Another way for Flip to go is to launch a series of higher quality video cameras to compete higher up the food chain.

Both strategies have big holes, and neither may work. But one thing is certain – In another year there will likely be multiple mobile devices that record video as well as the Flip, and have the benefit of GPS geo-stamping and mobile uploading. Flip will hit a huge brick wall. If the brand wants to live, it needs to adapt.

CrunchBase Information

Pure Digital Technologies

Flip Ultra

Apple

iPhone 3G S

Information provided by CrunchBase

This post has been written by Michael Arrington on June 20, 2009 couresy of techcrunch.com.

Adobe Says HTML 5 Won’t Replace Flash

When it comes to rich media on the Internet today, much of the media is powered by Adobe Flash. Flash has some competition like Microsoft Silverlight, but Flash continues to be one of the most supported rich media applications.

The future of Flash is not as clear as it once was with Google touting the ability to support rich media applications online with HTML 5. For its part Adobe insists that Flash will survive HTML 5 and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen went so far as to dismiss HTML 5, reports InformationWeek.

Narayen said, "[T]he fragmentation of browsers makes Flash even more important rather than less important."

Perhaps the most interesting demonstration that could put fear into the hearts of Adobe and its shareholder is the demonstration by Google at its developer conference of a YouTube prototype using HTML 5 instead of Flash.

Adobe’s John Dowdell posted a blog comment in response to numerous headlines and Tweets that called HTML 5 a "Flash-killer." Dowdell called Apple, Google, and Mozilla "a consortium of minority browser vendors" and considered the absence of Flash on the iPhone and Silverlight technology as an endorsement of the technology.

Dowdell wrote, "Silverlight’s launch helped boost the popularity of Flash. … iPhone helped to radically increase the number of phones with Flash support."

Adobe has taken a defensive tact with regards to HTML 5 leading to speculation that the company may be more afraid of the technology that it wants to let on. InformationWeek reports that some readers posted comments to Dowdell’s blog calling the advocacy of Flash another sign of Adobe’s "open standards animosity."

Adobe is trucking along in the poor global economy, but reported a 41% drop in profits for its last quarter. Despite the decline in profit the stock price remains steady, which InformationWeek believes is a sign that investors see the drop in profits as due to the economy and not issues with the company or its offerings. Strategy Analytics reported in February that MySpace and YouTube were driving the adoption of some forms of Flash. If YouTube movies to another platform it would be a significant blow to Adobe.

This post has been written by Shane McGlaun on June 19, 2009 12:30 PM couresy of dailytech.com.

Modders gut an SNES, cram in a PC

The SNES you see above, ladies and gentlemen, is no SNES at all. It is, in fact, a fully functioning PC (an Acer Aspire One netbook, if you want to know). Built by quangDX and DuPPs of Asobitech.com, the AASNES1 packs all the connections you need, WiFi and even some cool USB extension cables that plug directly into the console’s controller ports (its makers also modified a Super NES controller to work as a USB controller). The DVD-RW drive is located inside the Super Mario World cartridge and the modders even made the Super Nintendo logo on the back light up. It is, in summation, sweet.

Check out a video of the AASNES1 after the break and head over to Asobitech for a step-by-step retelling of its creation.

[Via Engadget]

This post has been written by Richard Mitchell on Jun 20th 2009 at 1:00AM couresy of joystiq.com.

Close to 700,000 Palm Pre apps downloaded to date

There may not be a ton of Pre apps available just yet, but it looks like there’s enough to accumulate an impressive 666,511 downloads as of June 17th, which likely means that we’re close to or past the 700,000 mark by now. As you can see above in graph form courtesy of Medialets, things have been rising steadily as more and more apps became available, and there’s no noticeable sign of a drop-off even as apps remained around the 30 mark after the end of the first week. Of course, it’s obviously still a little early to draw any firm conclusions, and there’s no telling how things could shake out once the long-awaited PreFart and PreBeer apps make their debut.

[Via Mobile-review]

This post has been written by Donald Melanson on Jun 20th 2009 at 5:21AM couresy of engadget.com.

Hello Kitty Online’s world domination plan has begun

While Massively focuses on a lot of the bigger games on the market, the World of Warcrafts and Warhammer Onlines out there that define fantasy MMOs for many gamers, we still like to keep our eyes on the lesser-discussed MMO titles. Which leads me to my point — we’re on to you Hello Kitty. We’ve said this before and we’ll probably say it again, Hello Kitty has her cute little eyes set on nothing less than absolute global domination through Hello Kitty Online.

It began with her decking out Beijing with even more stars than the real Beijing, a feat most thought impossible, much less swathing the city in pink and purple hues. We’ve since learned that she wants Brazil, as well as Singapore and Malaysia, in her little paws. Apparently the next phase of her plan involves new avatar customization options with cute little… outfit… thingies… in the item mall. It’s diabolical! Just check out the screengrabs below, if you dare.

This post has been written by James Egan on Jun 18th 2009 at 8:00PM couresy of massively.com.

City Requests Facebook, MySpace, Google Logins and Passwords of Job Applicants

The city of Bozeman, with a population of 25,000 people in southwestern Montana, likely isn’t one you heard of recently. However, it’s in the news after a city job requirement has drawn heavy criticism over possible privacy issues.

An anonymous citizen who applied for a city job alerted local media that he or she had to provide log-in information and passwords for any and all social networking web sites they use while applying for a job with the city.

Along with the normal background check, criminal history, education and employment past, the following is written into the Bozeman city employment waiver statement:

"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc."

The application also gives room for three different web sites, account names and passwords, according to the applicant.

There are obvious privacy concerns related to what the city is attempting to do here, regardless of whether or not an applicant has something possibly incriminating posted on a social networking web site.  

In Article 2, Section 10 of the Montana Constitution, it says "the right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest."

"So, we have positions ranging from fire and police, which require people of high integrity for those positions, all the way down to the lifeguards and the folks that work in city hall here," Bozeman city attorney Greg Sullivan told local media.  "So we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the City."

It’s possible Bozeman may create an official Facebook page where they have the ability to view an applicant’s profile without the ability of looking at that persons friends through the site.

City officials say no applicants elected to refuse to turn over social networking information and end their application process.

It’s interesting to hear that a city seeks to have a peek at an applicant’s MySpace or Facebook profile as part of the application process.  There are a growing number of professors and experts who warn college students and young people that they should be extremely careful what they publicly post on the internet, though normally companies don’t have direct access to a person’s account.

This post has been written by Michael Barkoviak on June 18, 2009 4:06 PM couresy of dailytech.com.

Video: Samsung’s e-passport turns your head into a rotating government specimen

Samsung (and your local government) hasn’t been shy with its plans for electrifying passports. Yet we still haven’t seen video of its e-passport with flexible OLED display in action, ’till now. The 2-inch, 240×320 AMOLED displays a disembodied, rotating head in 260k colors and 10k:1 contrast when activated by an RF source reader. No details were provided as to when these might enter production but we have the icky feeling it’ll be sooner than we want.

[Via OLED-Info]

This post has been written by Thomas Ricker on Jun 19th 2009 at 5:26AM couresy of engadget.com.

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