Article Title: This Boring Headline Is Written for Google

Excerpt: So news organizations large and small have begun experimenting with tweaking their Web sites for better search engine results. But software bots are not your ordinary readers: They are blazingly fast yet numbingly literal-minded. There are no algorithms for wit, irony, humor or stylish writing. The software is a logical, sequential, left-brain reader, while humans are often right brain.

Excerpt: The first headline a human reader sees: "Unsafe sex: Has Jacob Zuma's rape trial hit South Africa's war on AIDS?" One click down: "Zuma testimony sparks HIV fear." Another headline meant to lure the human reader: "Tulsa star: The life and career of much-loved 1960's singer." One click down: "Obituary: Gene Pitney."

Excerpt: Journalists, they say, would be wise to do a little keyword research to determine the two or three most-searched words that relate to their subject — and then include them in the first few sentences. "That's not something they teach in journalism schools," said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch, an online newsletter. "But in the future, they should."

Article Title: Behind the Curtain / How Google determines ranks and rates of its sponsored links

Excerpt: Google maintains that market forces keep prices from becoming outrageous.
It doesn't set prices, letting advertisers determine how much they're willing
to spend, though higher prices work in Google's favor.
Some advertisers complain it's like turning over their money and letting
Google do whatever it wants to decide where an advertisement runs. What's more,
new, unsophisticated advertisers could end up forking over too much money
because they don't realize they could get decent placement and not pay as much,
a study by Harvard, Stanford and UC Berkeley researchers said.

Excerpt: In a study, MarketingExperiments.com found that up to 30 percent of clicks on Google and its partner sites could be fake. "By the time it's happening, you've already paid for it," said Jalali Hartman, director of strategy for MarketingExperiments.com.

Excerpt: In most cases, Google wipes out fraudulent clicks before its customers even have a chance to see them. The firm uses software, which its engineers continually update, to search for irregular clicking patterns and filter out what it believes are invalid clicks. It also deploys a team of employees to analyze and investigate account data for possible fraud.

"It's like the radar detection industry. You have two constituents trying to outsmart each other," said Stylman of Reprise Media. "This is perhaps the only visible risk to a booming industry. There is a lot at stake for (Google)."

The depth of the problem isn't clear, because Google will not disclose details about click fraud. Google's Schmidt said Thursday that the impact of click fraud is "not material" and declined to get more specific. Google also said that studies on click fraud are wildly exaggerated and the number of fraudulent clicks it removes beforehand is far more than the number of requests it's received for refunds, which is "very small."

Excerpt: In January, U.S. consumers used Google for 2.8 billion searches, or nearly 50 percent all of online queries, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. That helped produce 41.1 billion sponsored links in January on Google and its partner sites. And the experience with click fraud hasn't stopped E-magine Networks and other businesses from continuing to use Google.