As I have been reading more and more about this settlement, the more it makes me happy that I didn’t do anything with this enormous book of papers to my side. This book of papers I’m referencing is the documentation to enter into this exact case that was sent to me last year. I spoke with the attorney’s representing the plaintiff’s because I was very interested. At one time I was going back and forth with both Google and Overture trying to plead my case of obvious click fraud only getting the constant run-around from both. Sometimes they would give me a $50, maybe $100 credit even though I was showing them proof from our tracking logs that showed thousands upon thousands of fraudulent clicks. Both companies always gave the same old crappy speach how “they have super techno technology to prevent fraudulent clicking”, of course, I had evidence that proved otherwise.

One of the most shocking statements I read about this settlement is what $90 million dollars is to Google. This is an excerpt from this news story:

“Since 2002, Google has generated $11.2 billion in gross revenue, and $7.3 billion in net revenue. So the $90 million settlement would amount to 0.8 percent and 1.2 percent of these sales,” Mahaney wrote in a research note.“

Could you imagine if $90 million dollars meant less than 1% of your net revenue? Wow.

Back to why I’m glad I did not actually follow through with joining this case. . .after reading that those involved get the same reward as those who were not involved it made me realize that all the time to spend reading the book I received and doing the work to get involved would have been a waste of time when all I have to do now is submit my log history to Google for a refund.

I strongly urge everyone that feels wronged by click fraud to submit to Google. We need to take their offering and use up all $90 million. Once the suit is finalized, they will provide a method to request a refund from your AdWords account.