wwconnect - 7:07 pm on Jul 15, 2011 (gmt 0)

The average cost-per-click rose approximately 12%, compared with the same period last year, as aggregate paid clicks rose 18%. Sequentially, the average cost-per-click and paid clicks fell 2% and 6%, respectively. I'm not quite clear what that last sentence means, other than I'm suspicious that their growth in revenue isn't coming from organic growth in business or market share, but instead is the result of them charging hire prices and paying out publishers less. And there's lots more room still available to them in milking that spread.

@wheel

The sentence doesn't make sense because the Fox News article misinterprets the data.

If you look at the actual investor report[investor.google.com ] on Google's site it says aggregate paid clicks in Q2 2011 increased 18% over Q2 2010 but decreased 2% over Q1 2011.

It also says avg cpc in Q2 2011 increased 12% over Q2 2010 and 6% over Q1 2011.

So basically, they are comparing Q2 2011 to Q2 2010 and also to Q1 2011.