Comments:
Jeff Molander,
Great article and brilliant research, do you think Google and Yahoo! might have worked behind the scenes on this kind of thing?
Thanks, Dave.
I believe that there are far more collaborative efforts than people can see. Most of this goes on in cigar clubs, on golf courses and such between Board members but there’s absolutely cooperation among power brokers. That stated, I have no hard evidence to confirm what you suggest.
Hey Jeff,
You know I’m a big follower of click fraud related things, and it amazes me how many advertisers let apparently tens of millions of dollars just run away from them. I’m not entirely sold that the ‘cost of fraud’ is calculated in to anyone’s PPC ad spend.
Overall though, I concur with you guys as well that there must, obviously, be some level of collusion here… But to me it feels more like how gas stations price gasoline. I don’t think it’s that they’re necessarily overtly having discussions, but more thank likely they’re simply seeing what prices and services people will put up with from other vendors, and keeping just in line with what the market will bear.