Yahoo, Click Forensics team up to tackle click fraud

Yahoo has become the first search engine to work with a third party click-tracking company to ensure online advertisers are getting what they pay for.

by Helen Leggatt

Click fraud is on the rise. Recent research found that the overall rate for the online advertising industry rose to 16.6% in Q4 07 from 14.2% in Q4 06.

Yahoo has decided to take the bull by the horns and partner with click auditing company, Click Forensics, to allow advertisers to better understand their click data. The partnership will enable advertisers to share sensitive account information, such as click data, with Yahoo via Click Forensics in an attempt to identify and stamp out click fraud and low-quality traffic.

The move will also go some way to establishing a valuable point of difference between Yahoo and other search engines, such as Google.

"Both sides get the information they need to make sure advertisers are getting what they pay for," said Click Forensics Chief Executive Tom Cuthbert, via Forbes.com.

Click Forensics recently received another large cash injection, securing $10 million in investment to continue their development of click fraud detection tools.