Search Engine Optimization

Ask.com is being suited for clickfraud. Slightly Shady SEO reported an email that landed in his inbox, stating that lawsuit is being prepared against Ask.com

Clickfarud is the action by competitor companies, where the competitor clicks on text link ads and depletes the advertising budget of the competitor. Since the victim pays for each click that he gets, his budget for the day can simply run out, living more room for competitor.

Here is the Copy of the proceedings from Slightly Shady SEO:

—————————————————————————————————-

Subject: Click Charge Settlement
Legal Notice:
If you purchased online advertising from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. (collectively “Ask”) between August 1, 2005 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. Ask Jeeves, Inc. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice advises you of your legal rights.
You should review the detailed Settlement Notice as soon as possible, as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with a proposed settlement of the class action lawsuit. Your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice.
The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court’s certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.
The proposed settlement will provide advertising credits to class members who certify that they were the victims of “click fraud” or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements purchased from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. on or after August 1, 2005.
The proposed settlement will resolve claims that IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by failing to adequately detect and stop “click fraud” or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.
If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act.
For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at www.AskSettlement.com.

—————————————————————————————————-

Ask.com is the fourth biggest search Engine in North America with around 4% market share. Ask.com is wholly owned by IAC.

Chinese Blogger was beaten to death by Chinese military police for attempting to record a protest on his cellular phone.

Full report on Techcrunch.

Chinese government has been repeatedly exposed engaging in dehumanization activities, as its ruthless police state crushes all forms of dissent. China has a complete grip on its internet infrastructure and Chinese internet acts as the separate entity to the world wide web. Any anti government statements, either in chats, forums or blogs are tracked, authors ether imprisoned or killed.

In the world of unending spin, internet has served as the exposure window contrary to the “official line”, however China and its martial law system is able to keep a tight grip on free speech of its populous. Lets hope that Chinese protesters can fight off their freedom with time.

As mentioned in the previous post, it seems that Google rolled out its 2008 January page rank update.

Digital point forums members are reporting PR updates on their websites. You can read it here.

Webmaster World members also noted changes in page rank, you can read detailed posts over here.

Barry Schwartz of SEO Roundtable reported page Rank Update for DMOZ directory as well on the overall Page Rank update.

There is still silence from Google or Matt Cutts, but due to the magnitude of reports it is obvious that PR update is being rolled out by Google.

P.S.

Page Rank for www.searchengineoptimizationcompany.ca  is currenty at 5 as it was before.