Atticus - 6:31 pm on Jun 4, 2005 (gmt 0)

MikeNoLastName,

That theory is not as crazy as it may sound to some folks.

I check my AS stats more often than I check my referrer logs. Any time my sites experience a serious drop off of G traffic, the first indicator I notice is an increase in my AS CPM.

This effect remains consistent over time. I have several months worth of data, running through a few ups and downs on G SERPs, that shows that the lower my position on the SERPs goes, the higher my AS CPM rises.

I always figured that folks coming to my site from Y or MSN are more likely to click an "Ads by Google" link than someone who came in via G. It seems that a visitor from G is less likely to click on "Ads by Google" because they probably think they'd just be running in circles.