Click fraud prevention: The next great search engine differentiator?

Over the past week I have highlighted interesting developments relating to click fraud.

In my “Microsoft on Click Fraud: pay per percentage ads ‘highly robust to fraud’” I discuss research Microsoft is engaging in to develop new, click-fraud resistant advertising schemes and in “Yahoo trumps Google: Yahoo takes the lead in attacking the click fraud problem” I discuss how Yahoo is acknowledging that there is a click fraud problem and is developing concrete ways to combat it.

I also discuss in my Yahoo story how Google is the lone player to insist that “everything is under control.”

As Google is the dominant player in search advertising, it is the company most exposed to the click fraud problem. As I pointed out following Google’s last investor conference call, in my “Google speak for Google investors,” one seemingly requisite question was not posed by any questioner: What are you doing about click fraud in order to prevent click fraud liability?

With Yahoo publicly taking a stand against click fraud and Microsoft publicly researching click fraud prevention, it is up to Google now to publicly acknowledge the reality of a click fraud problem and put forth meaningful solutions.