Google, Froogle, Click Fraud And Celebrating The Hooley

I’d just like to take a moment to say hello to our loyal blog readers. Hello. Thanks for stopping by today.

Okay.

Google In Trouble With The European Union?

No one really knows for sure, not even Google; however, the buzz in the blogosphere is that Google may soon receive a letter from the EU’s Article 29 Data Protection Working Party concerning how long Google holds on to user data. Apparently it’s too long and the European Union doesn’t like it.

Danny Sullivan speculates on what we’re hearing about a letter instead of seeing one:

"My understanding is that if there is a letter from the working group, it has to go to each EU member state for final approval before being sent. That process takes time, so it may be that news of the letter is being leaked out before final approval is gained."

Who knows how long that’ll take? More Google lawsuits coming soon!

Click Fraud Up In 2007

Recent news from Click Forensics has advertisers worried again, reporting that click fraud rates are up. The study found that the industry average click fraud rate has risen to 14.8 percent for Q1 2007 versus 13.7 percent for the same quarter in 2006, 14.2 percent for Q4 of 2006, 13.8 percent for Q3 of 2006, and 14.1 percent for Q2 of 2006.

The amount of fraud associated with high-priced search terms (terms that cost $2.00+) has also increased, sitting at 22.2 percent compared to 20.9 percent in Q4 2006, 20.9 in Q3 2006 and 20.2 in Q2 2006.

Should advertisers be overly worried? Not necessarily. As Chris Sherman noted over at Search Engine Land, these numbers may or may not take into account clicks already identified and removed by the search engines. So, as is always the case with click fraud, we really don’t know what the true numbers are. I wouldn’t panic or stop eating or anything; just keep monitoring your reports for suspicious activity.

Froogle Becomes Google Product Search

In super important, you’d-be-out-of-the-loop-if-you-missed-this news, Froogle has been renamed Google Product Search to make it more Google-branded and clear things up for people who are so brain dead they didn’t understand Froogle was Google without the ‘G’. Why do we always have to make life easier for the stupid people? Evolve or die, right?

Marissa Mayer says when Froogle was first named Google didn’t really understand the importance of names and branding. I guess I’m going to have to stop making fun of Microsoft for their wacky habit of putting "Windows Live" in front of everything.

Besides the name change, Google Product Search will also be streamlined to create a cleaner interface and give Google Checkout a little more prominence so Google can take all of your money. Exciting.

Happy Birthday, Hooley

This has nothing to do with his blog entry asking for love, or the fact that he harassed me via AIM, but here’s a little link love for Chris Hooley on his 30th birthday just because I think he’s a swell guy and only moderately insane.

As Susan said, thirty is so totally old. Heh. We heart you, Chris.

Fun Finds

Something for our Australian readers: Darren Rowse announced a Melbourne Blogger Meetup for those of you down under have been bitten by the blog bug. If you go, tell Darren that Lisa sent you. He’ll have no idea what you’re talking about but at least it’s an icebreaker.

Kim Krause talks about how schools should stop promoting the end of hope and once again makes us all proud to know her.

ResourceShelf points to a Forbes’ article outing The World’s Greenest Billionaires. Sergey and Larry seem to be listed third, with Bill Gates appearing later on. I don’t know, I just don’t think you should be on any kind of green list when you own a private jet, even if you only have one and are forced to share it.

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

See Lisa's author page for links to connect on social media.