If you follow Google or Yahoo, and you are not reading Silicon Valley Watcher, you should be! Actual reporting, scoops and analysis on the PPC ad world.

This article, with accompanying movie poster image (King Kong vs. Godzilla) sums up the real story behind Yahoo's upcoming launch of an AdSense competitor. Tom Foremski understands how it all fits together:

At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars of Google’s Adsense revenues from publishing text ads on third party web sites, many of them blogs. Yahoo has an opportunity to strike a strategic blow against Google.

Declining conversion rates because of click-fraud will further exacerbate the competitive battle. Click-fraud, if left unchecked, will lead to advertisers paying less for each click in response to fewer sales per click.

However, the idea that Google has planned out alternative inventory locations to battle click fraud is a bit of a stretch. I don't think Gmail was premediated. In any case, the point is still valid.

And the tagline poster: King Kong vs. Godzilla is right on. I can't wait for the battle to escalate.

¶ 3/11/2005