SEARCH ENGINES: "Click Pockets" On The Rise

The subject of click fraud has been around for a while and gained a fair amount of heavy attention right before Google went public. USA Today catches up on the story and says some experts believe "anywhere from 10% to 20% of the clicks are made under false pretenses." This represents some serious cabbage as industry research firm eMarketer expects $7.4 billion to be spent on search engine advertisingi n 2008, up from just $108.5 million in 2000.

The scary vision for progressive groups is a bunch of Freepers cackling and clicking away on sponsored links for our favorite search terms to inflate our pay-per-click spending.