I tried to post a comment about click-fraud earlier today on a SiliconBeat post, and in a rush to get to lunch, took out a chunk that I thought wasn’t important, only to realize when I got back that my post made no sense. Instead of re-posting, I decided I’d comment about it a little more here.

Besides the recent column by Mike Langberg in the Mercury NewsÂ? about click-fraud, there is also the announcement at the beginning of the month about Yahoo! being implicated in Spyware click-fraud. My post was in response to a post by Niki Scevak, and went as follows:

Although Niki makes some good points, if there is a general fear or concern about online advertising, it will only work against the Web 2.0 movement. Web 2.0 companies looking to take advantage of PPC ads won’t get the ads they need, because there are no assurances of the legitimacy of the ad clicks. It will be a case where a handfull wreck it for the masses.

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Although it’s still somewhat of a rumour, AOLTimeWarner is the largest company in the Entertainment industry and the 40th ranked company on the Fortune 500. If there is a rumour that they will be releasing a “MySpace Killer,” it simply can’t be ignored. AOL has made a couple different moves to capitlize on the ever-growing power of the social networking niche, first opening up AIMÂ? to harness the power of their userbase, and then using that to help launch “AIMSpace.” Business 2.0 has a short article about the project, and has linked to a post on downloadsquad.comÂ? by Armughan Javaid, Program Manager in AOL Technologies’ Open Services group, that seems to confirm the soon-to-be-released website will allow non-AIM members to join.

One of the points I like to stress in talking about social networking websites, and really any website or businessÂ? that tries to slide into such a crowded market, is what will make them different or give them an advantage over those already established. With AIMSpace, it is quite obvious. AIM has an activeÂ? userbase of over 63 million, and by creating their own website from scratch, many of the downfalls/shortcomings of MySpace can be avoided - programming inÂ? Web2.0Â? and integratingÂ? popular AOL features are the two that firstÂ? come to mind. There are several questions that come to mind when thinking about social networking websites, as I mention in my Un-Social Networking post, at least there is an angle to be worked by AIM - or 63 million different angles to work.

After gaining a lot of press over the rumoured $2Billion purchase price, Facebook announces that not only was it never really for sale, it has just raised $25Million in VC funding. Although this may confirm the company is no longer for sale, one must now question the source of the initial sale rumour. Was it merely a tactic to gain some publicity beforeÂ? looking or during negotiationsÂ? for funding? We may never know. But a better question to ask might be why invest in another Social Networking website?

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Initially, I had thought of ignoring the purchase of Meedio by Yahoo!, but having relooked at the purchase, it’s difficult to ignore the significance of the move. Earlier, I made a post about the shift in mediaÂ? and how networks like ABC and Fox are looking at increasing their exposure on the Internet. One of the comments made by Robert Young in his post on gigaom.comÂ? was about Google and Yahoo!, who were likely counting on becoming major distributors of Hollywood media, and where was this going to leave them. It seems Yahoo! has quickly answered.

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As a spin-off of some April Fool’s blog posts (Robert Scoble, Steve Rubel,Â? and Debbie Weil to name a few), Debbie made a prediction for 2006 (My prediction). Although I can’t totally discredit what she’s saying, that given the “power” of the blogosphere, posters and readersÂ? will have to be careful about the validity of information in blogs, I also can’t completely agree with it. The example she gives is obviously a good one, regarding Kryptonite bike locks and the blog post on Endgadget. But I have a couple different points to make about the post.

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