Investigators getting tough on those who abuse pay-per-click

Let's cover recent developments in technology in a nutshell, with some commentary that I hope will shed some light.

• Investigators are finally getting tough on "click fraud," the practice of screwing around with pay-per-click ads on sites like Google and Yahoo. The idea is simple. Let's say you own a banana plantation in Alaska. You purchase the keywords "banana plantation" from Google. That assures your link is at the top of the search link. You have agreed to pay Google a fee for every person that clicks on the link. (It could be 20 cents, it could be $50, depending on how in-demand the words are.)

Of course, where there's a good idea, there are morons to spoil it. So when it comes to banana plantations in Alaska, a rival operator simply clicks on your link over and over until he runs out your present spending limit or bankrupts you. (There are even reports of companies hiring off-shore contractors to repeatedly click on an ad.)

Now Google, Yahoo and other sites that use pay-per-click are trying to come up with ideas to block repeated clicks, spot fraud and combat this problem.

• Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, which has been the Achilles heel of security for Windows because of its lax security, continues to get hammered by Firefox. Millions of Windows users are using the browser replacement now, and the numbers are bound to grow. (Keep in mind Firefox is not perfect, either, but it is more secure than IE.)

Yahoo has released the beta of the Yahoo toolbar for Firefox. I personally won't use any toolbar other than Google, but the Yahoo release does give Firefox a stamp of commercial credibility. You can download Firefox from www.mozilla.org.

Interestingly, a new spoofing vulnerability was discovered recently that affects all browsers on the market except Internet Explorer, which I thought was funny. And yes, Mac fans, Safari flunked, too. Details on this one can be found at www.secunia.com.

• Microsoft shut off its whole MSN messaging service recently after a security issue was released in the wild. (Microsoft? Security issue? You're kidding me!) Unless you had the newest version of the client, you were just not getting on. Run Windows Update if you use MSN. Heck, run it every few days or so, if not hourly.