Monday, August 07, 2006

User Actions Give True Click Throughs

Microsoft researchers say tracking an entire user session can help search engines to detect true clicks from frauds. Microsoft published results (PDF)of a study aggregating the results of 3,500 user sessions to separate the noise from search queries.

Microsoft says that by tracking the actions before and after a click through, the company learned how to more accurately detect bogus clicks and provide improved page ranking than traditional automated methods.

While consumers may not like the idea of having their entire sessions tracked (anonymously of course), any tools that can help reduce click fraud need to be investigated. Microsoft also says the its research can lead to personalized search results that match individual behaviors. If Microsoft has a real breakthrough it could help the company's lagging search engine, or at least force Google and Yahoo to more aggressively address click fraud (by working with the IAB etc.) and ad pricing.

Posted By Jason Dowdell at 12:42 PM
Permanent Link: User Actions Give True Click Throughs | Comments (3)

(3) Comments on User Actions Give True Click Throughs

Pretty interesting paper - skimmed though it (not a computer scientist) but I did notice Chart 3-1 which covers all the actions that are tracked in a user session - facinating!

Comments by webmetricsguru : Monday, August 07, 2006 at 10:34 PM

I think it's great that the search engines are starting to be proactive in dealing with click fraud before it becomes an even bigger problem.

Comments by Aaron : Wednesday, August 09, 2006 at 02:21 PM

Businesses are proactive when it hurts their profitability but nobody has been proactive with clickfraud. We're in the reactionary stage at this point.

Comments by Jason : Friday, August 11, 2006 at 01:12 PM

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