internetheaven - 7:33 am on Jun 22, 2006 (gmt 0)

If the A in the PPA means a sale, they only way to game the system would be to buy stuff through fraudulent means.

Awwww ... Newbies are always so cute when they say things like that!

Furthermore, what happens when the advertiser has a big, bold, telephone number on their site and strongly encourages the visitor to call-in their order?

That's a problem in every affiliate network. But if you've got a small enough network policing it and "suggesting" changes to merchants is pretty easy. On Google's planned scale it would be impossible. Reporting a merchant for dodgy tactics could take months before anything is done. I've been in affiliate marketing for over five years now, I wouldn't touch a Google branded affiliate network with a very, very, very long barge pole. If I had a barge-pole that reached from my office to the Googleplex I still wouldn't touch it, not even just to see what it was like ...

Yeah, it could shake things up a bit, anything Google does shakes things up.

Although not totally relevant to the discussion I just wanted to voice my utter disbelief at statements such as this. I can't think of one thing that Google has done that is original or important enough to warrant the phrase "shakes things up". They are just a corporate giant trying to buy into every corner of already established markets. That is the only reason they are entering this one now, not because they think they can do it better, but because they think that they can make extra cash.