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Mitch Ratcliffe responded to my entry that criticized his How to get Google to fix BlogSpot post. Since I think this is an important issue. I elevated this to a full post instead of the argument getting lost in the comments.

Here is Mitch’s response in full:

At no point do I suggest click fraud, what I suggested is that when bloggers receive spam postings they go to the sources of those sites and click the ads there. It would not target legitimate Blogspot (or other hosts that facilitate splogs) publishers, just the abusers. It would not be “random.”

This would create pain for advertisers—it won’t drive them away, because AdSense works—but it will make them demand Google explain why they are getting much lower conversion rates. They will petition Google for relief, which is what advertising customers do (and I speak from experience as a publisher). These kinds of campaigns could be conducted in narrow timeframes by groups of bloggers who are tired, as I am, of cleaning spam postings out of their comments and trackbacks.

Finally, there is a general tone that this is wrong because it is bad business. I am suggesting a political statement, not a business decision. If Google bans me for clicking other people’s ads, they would have to prove I was commiting fraud, which is not the case if I am clicking on ads on other people’s sites. I’m justs surfing. But, frankly, if Google cut off AdSense on my site it would do nothing to my ability to earn money from the site. There are other ad programs that will pay me a few dollars a month, too.

We shouldn’t be so timid about the information environment we live in. Google’s contributing to information pollution and we should act to stop them.

I think you are naive, JoeChong, if you think Google can afford to impose quality controls. It would slash their margins, raising ad prices overall, and prevent many bloggers and publishers from ever being seen by Google searchers.

This is my response.

First of all, in my mind, if you click on an AdSense ad with no intention at all of seeing what’s on the other side, you are committing click fraud. I’m sure Google would agree. This is a similar tactic that a website owner would take when he sees a competitors website advertising on AdSense, and click on the ad just to hurt his competitor.

Wikipedia defines click fraud as: “Click fraud occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating an improper charge per click.”

Second, I think you are confusing two different types of spam: comment spam and splogs (spam blogs). These are two different techniques spammers use to get links to their sites. Just to be sure, I checked the links of 18 of my comment spams and not one pointed to a blogspot blog or a splog.

Your assertion that the type of click activity you suggest won’t drive advertisers away from AdSense is also wrong. Many AdWords advertisers already don’t participate in Google’s content network (third party publishers) and only place ads in Google own search results. They have been burned in the past by low quality sites so they opt out of the whole content network.

Your strategy is equivalent to someone saying that they don’t approve of porno magazines, so to hurt porno magazines, they will go into every store that advertises in porno magazines and shoplift from them. Once the stores figure out that people are shoplifting from them because they advertise in porno magazines, the advertisers will stop ads in porno magazines and so the porn will go away. It is such a back-assward way of doing things.

Again, as an AdSense publisher, an AdWords advertiser, and a person who hates splogs, I am pleading with you not to partake in this type of nonsense. It just doesn’t make sense. This activity will help the sploggers and hurt the AdSense/AdWords ecosystem.