Search Network, Content Network, and the Abuse video on YouTube

need clarification on where my PPC ads, and SERP listings, appear

[jcmoon]

For campaigns in AdSense, I see that I have the option of my ads appearing in the Google Search, in the Search Network, and in the Content Network.

But I get confused as to which is which. The Content Network ... that's AdSense, the "Ads by Goooogle", appearing on blogs, websites, whatever. The Search Network ... well, that would be engines who get their SERPs from Google, right?

But I run into some strange things. After checking out the "AdWords Abuse" video on YouTube, I noticed that some of my referrals were coming from some strange places. Domains such as sedoparking.com, emul.com, ewoss.com ... which appear to be sites devoted to nothing but advertising, all with a search feature.

Now, does this search feature, which leads to nothing but advertisements, count as the Content Network, or the Search Network? Because if I un-check the "Content Network" option, my ads still appear.

The reason I care is if my ads are appearing in these places and get clicked on, who pays for that click? Me? These sites are very unlikely to be used as search engines by most users, or my target audience.

The fact that some of the sites doing this type of (scam?) activity are also competing with me for my keywords in AdWords makes me even less confident that Google cares what's going on.

I apologize if this doesn't make sense; it confounds me and I'm just trying to get a better understanding of things.

[jimbeetle]

This isn't as strange as you might think, especially since it's a part of Google's Domain Park [google.com] program.

And yep, you're paying for the click.

[Rodney]

These sites are very unlikely to be used as search engines by most users, or my target audience.

I guess that Google considers "direct navigation" a type of search.

Instead of using a search engine and using the keyword "example", a user searches for "example" by typing in example.com into their address bar and directly navigates to example.com where they find all types of links that show them what they are looking for "examples for sale" "example service companies" etc. Some would say that's a highly qualified lead (many advertisers pay a premium on these type of keyword domains just for the type of leads it can generate).

This news article was posted recently;it helps to explain things:
[post-gazette.com...]