A Los Angeles-based law firm with a history of targeting online media companies for click fraud filed suit Tuesday against Citysearch, the directory site owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, as well as Ticketmaster, the ticketing site that IAC is attempting to spin out into a separate publicly traded company.
"Citysearch.com is defrauding its advertising customers of millions of dollars by not only turning a blind eye to click fraud, but in fact encouraging it as well," a statement from the firm Kabateck Brown Kellner read. The class action suit encompasses anyone in the U.S. who paid for pay-per-click advertising space on Citysearch, but the named plaintiff is Tom Lambotte, who purchased ad space on Citysearch and then claimed that the number of clicks on his ads rose suspiciously.
Representatives from IAC and Citysearch were not immediately available for comment.
According to the complaint, filed in a California court, Lambotte first purchased Citysearch ads in late 2007, didn't see a gain in traffic to his site, and attempted to cancel his ad account. The cancellation process dragged out, he said, and in the meantime his ad clicks started to escalate suspiciously. He speculated that click fraud--in which clicks to ads are meant only to drive up the rate the advertiser pays and not to purchase the product--was at play.
Claims in click fraud lawsuits are sometimes questionable, and Kabateck Brown Kellner has extensive experience in the field that could raise a red flag: the plaintiff-only firm has won against both Yahoo and Google, and attorney Brian Kabateck recently went after Google's AdWords advertising program, claiming that it deceived customers.
Consequently, a suit against yet another (smaller) player in the search market could come across as an attempt to just filch more cash from big dot-coms. Or, as the suit goes forward, Lambotte's claims, as represented by Kabateck, could show a legitimate foundation.
Search companies, meanwhile, announced a coalition against click fraud nearly two years ago in conjunction with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council.
- Google rolls out pay-per-action. Google's got a new advertising scheme, and it's set up to help small-time advertisers avoid the dangers of click fraud. Instead of just paying by the click, advertisers can set up predetermined actions the user must go through, such as purchasing an item or browsing a certain section of the site. The new system has sparked controversy in the blogosphere as a potential destroyer of smaller affiliate marketing services.
- Congoo launches News Portals. Premium news content distributor Congoo (previous coverage) has rolled out a customizable single-page-aggregation service that pulls stories from user-selected topics. Users can also create their own newsfeed by using keywords that filter upcoming stories.
- RateItAll and MuseStorm team up to make MySpace list widgets. MuseStorm makes widgets and various ways to track their activity, and RateItAll lets users rate things. The two have teamed up to create sharable widgets for MySpace profiles that let people share interesting lists they find on RateItAll in a scrolling top-10 format. Users can then track widget statistics using MuseStorm. (via SexyWidget)
- Mashable rolls out in-house Techmeme competitor. Dubbed "Mashtracker," the new service combines Megite story aggregation technology with stories on Mashable to provide users with related stories and discussion from around the Internet. It's a neat way to see similar news items, as well as alternate takes from various bloggers and news services. See also Techmeme and Tailrank.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
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