This thread was intended to be a technical discussion. I was hoping that someone that had good-quality knowledge about how Google differentiates between ad-sense clicks would come along and post. The caliber of talent and knowledge on this forum still surprises me, to the point that I almost expect it. I've thought about this to the point where it felt like I ran out of brainpower, and I started this thread hoping that someone else could move my (and our) awareness forward.
As I see it, there are 3 kinds of Ad-Sense clicks that Google needs to be able to differentiate. They are:
1) Legitimate clicks from legitimate users that, for whatever reason have come to a particular page and clicked an ad.
2) Non-legitimate clicks from the account holder (or his proxies) that are intended to generate illegitimate income from those clicks.
3) Non-legitimate clicks from someone not associated with the account holder, for the purpose of getting the account holder's account banned.
See, my real question is about how Google could differentiate between those three situations. If they make a mistake in any of those 3, they fail in their basic mission to deliver legitimate views for paying advertisers, which is the whole point of their existence, because at core Google is not a search engine company, it is an advertiser.
The moral views are nice, but really off-topic. I think it's the place people have a tendency to go when they haven't anything more substantive to say, but they are interested in the topic and want to be associated with the discussion, which means they have to say "something". I do this myself. However, lately I've been learning the value of the "Subscribe" button on the "Thread Tools" menu. It gives me the ability to follow a thread without requiring me to say something that is irrelevant or off-topic. Maybe someone else may find this suggestion useful.
