January 14, 2004

With just a small coterie of such people using a variety of individual Internet Protocol addresses, it is almost impossible to determine which hits are real and which are "paid to play."

Admittedly, there is no direct evidence linking Google to such practices, but those disturbing spam ads are still out there, threatening to undermine the PPC environment and ultimately, if the storm becomes big enough, the future existence of PPC advertising.

Unfortunately, it seems that whenever a new medium is introduced, there are invariably people who seek to circumvent its conventions and subvert its intent for short-term gain. One only has to think of the payola scandals in the early days of rock 'n' roll or the floods of current e-mail offers for body part enlargements and shady refinancing deals.

Of course, self-policing is the first line of defense, and obviously, some affiliates are more reputable than others. Likewise, some PPC vendors are more circumspect about choosing their affiliates than others. But as we've seen with the enormous proliferation of music online, once certain floodgates are opened, they cannot easily be closed again. As with the Andrea Gail at the end of its journey, the realization only belatedly dawned on the sailors that the storm that had been willing to let them in would no longer let them out.

We do not want to get to that point with PPC. It is a very effective medium to advertisers and, in an Internet advertising environment known for annoying banner advertising and pop-ups, a welcome source of promotional relief.

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