Google ads vulnerable to simple coding trick

[McKenzie]

<snip>

The Clickrisk researchers say software "bots" could be programmed to repeatedly search using specific keywords without clicking through. This could artificially demote a target company's adverts, the company claims. This is because the repeated lack of advert click-through convinces the Google software that those ads are not of proper relevance to the search terms used.

<snip.

I wonder what would happen if someone with a grudge against big corporations wrote a simple, VB, or Perl-based, search page that did just that...and gave copies to loads of friends...

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6972