Google Adsense Flaw - Attribution!

Microsoft was fast to point out a severe flaw in the Google Adsense business model.  The problem is attribution of all the websites that contribute to persons inclination to click on a google AdSense ad.

The Problem with Adsense Attribution

How many times have you surf the Internet and seeing an ad and almost clicked on it.  Maybe it's five maybe it's 10 pages later you see the ad again over and over and over, and you finally click on it.  The website that you happen to be on where you click on the ad is attributed with conversion.  They receive half of the advertising fee and Google gets the other half.

Even more problematic is when someone sees the attribute over multiple websites, and then performs a google search to learn more about the advertisement.  All of those websites that carry the advertisement get zero attribution for their work.  Sometimes a person to does the Web search clicks on a Google ad from the Web search site and Google gets paid and no one else receives a dime.

Microsoft of all people (and competitors) pointed out this flaw this week and PC World was quick to jump on it.  Google Gets Undue Credit for Ad Conversions

The interesting thing is that Microsoft hinted that they might just have the ability to solve this problem, presumably with their own advertising tool and not Google's.  It will be interesting to understand just how they might split the revenues from multiple attributions.

Furthermore, hinting at the problem and the ability to solve it is very unlike Microsoft.  They could have just rolled out a fix and taken Google by surprise.  The reality is that Google could roll out such a fix easily today as they already track ad impressions. 

However, Google may be a victim of their own success.  If they applied attribution today, many publishers that get lucky at the end of a chain would receive less and those attributers along the way would receive more.  Getting Google to clean up its PPC business, might be about as easy as getting Lindsay Lohan to stay in drug rehab.  It might just take a Microsoft to save the PPC industry from itself.

Just testing this video

BLOGRUSH

I received an email today asking if I had heard of BLOGRUSH.  This is somewhat similar to some of the services provided by Blogmad and Blog Explosion. 

This is not a surf exchange however as those are.  They sign bloggers up, categorize their blogs and grab the feed for the blogs.  They then rotate headlines from the feed through widgets on other bloggers sites.

For every impression a blogger that signs up receives when someone looks at their own site running the widget, then that blogger will get one of their feed headlines to show up on a different bloggers site (in a blog that's in a related category).

The so what factor

Blogrush provides a referral program that goes 10 levels deep, so your referrals of your referrals  . .. . 10 deep will also bring you credits for listing your headlines in other blogs across the internet.

The down side

1. This is just another form of barter like advertisement for bloggers. 
2. It provides related article like headlines, but these are not on your site and they are not with bloggers that you know. 
3. You seem to have little control over the bloggers that are run in this program. 
4. Plus, you won't get exposure, unless someone on a different site you do not know, actually sees your headline and clicks on it to view your site.

If you have the space on your sidebar for the widget and it doesn't detract from your content nor clutter things up, this could be nice form of free advertising, but its not likely to earn you enough traffic to generate the dough to go buy Super Bowl tickets with your adense earnings anytime soon.

For what its worth you can get the same capability that BLOGRUSH offers from Blogmad and Blog Explosion.  They offer the same exact functionality, although their referral tiers only go 3-4 levels deep.  These older networks do have a very large and established network though.