StupidScript - 11:37 pm on Apr 6, 2005 (gmt 0)

Oh walkman ... things have changed a LOT since then. For example, we can't just go shoot Google like we used to be able to.

(BTW, I use "we" to refer to my company, my crew, likeminded individuals, webmaster, just about any group I might belong to.)

I'm trying to impress on people that the Internet and its "laws" are extremely immature, regardless of what marketing people hype. HTML has only been around since late 1988 (in public form), for crying out loud. "Click fraud" didn't even exist as a concept until years after GoTo.com started selling PPC ads in the late-1990s, less than 7 years ago.

How can people expect a seven-year-old technology to be mature? How can "we" people expect that a problem that was identified years after I bought my last pair of shoes be in any way solved by now?

It's a NEW problem in a NEW infrastructure and it is being addressed as quickly as possible. Sure, some of you might say that a few years is plenty of time to solve this problem. But it's not. The problem is extremely complex and its face changes every few months as new capabilities emerge.

"We" online advertisers ARE pioneers.

If someone wants to throw money at PPC then let them understand that they are involved in a NEW advertising medium that is undergoing the throes of being born. "We" programmers and standards developers are under a giant gun, and "we" are not helped by complaints that "we" are not moving fast enough.

Join "us" in providing solutions. That's what a pioneer would do.