The average click-fraud rate among search engines was up slightly in the second quarter, with high-priced search terms the most likely targets, an analytics firm said Monday.
The average click-fraud rate for the five industries studied was 14.1 percent in the quarter, compared with 13.7 percent for the first quarter, Click Forensics LLC said. The San Antonio company's Click Fraud Index for high-priced search terms was well above the average at 20.2.
The higher rate is an indication of the financial benefit of perpetrating click fraud against buyers of the highest-priced search terms, which Click Forensics classifies as those that cost $2 or more per click.
"Clearly, there's a financial incentive," Tom Cuthbert, president and chief executive of Click Forensics, said.
Click fraud is often used by competitors to drive up the online advertising costs of rivals. It's also used by some Web site operators to increase revenues. The activity is often automated through the use of computers.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
