Now this is not something you can see all the time. So I am not sure if it's just a few data centres effected or a few machines effected in a few places.. who knows.
Anyway the people who notice the most I guess will be people who track keywords used in clicks, and I suspect mostly affiliates will be able to do this.
Again, this issue is not being seen by all and some people who do see it don't see it all the time.
I know not allowed to give out URL's so I can't give you an example on this. But if people like to do their own checks see what happens.
"This is not at all widespread,"
How do you know?
Friday entertainment, at least. ;-)
... calling our account rep now.
Added: Spoke to a very nice girl named Meghan (Megan?) as I couldn't get a hold of our account rep, and she indicated she would pass the problem on to tech. Since first level support knew about it, I wouldn't classify the problem as "rare".
AWA, just a bit of feedback: I wish at times like these we could go straight to tech. I'm not complaining, as Meghan was very nice, but I think things may be resolved quicker if tech to tech could speak, so to say.
I'm still having problems, shooting off an email.
Excellent, thanks TrustNo1.
"This is not at all widespread,"How do you know?
A very fair question, which I answered with more detail than anyone would probably want to hear in another thread recently. I'll see if I can find it later. But it boils down to this:
* I am reading WebmasterWorld as well as other online forums that concern Adwords constantly throughout the day. And WebmasterWorld, in particular, is an excellent 'early warning system', especially in view of the wonderfully international user-base.
* Several times a day, I scan all incoming email. I scan many hundreds of subject lines (which is a good reason to make them informative, btw) and also quickly read at least a couple of hundred each day.
* I am a part of the phone team, and listen carefully to what advertisers tell us.
* I have very effective two-way communication with the tech folks.
So, with all of the above in place I have a pretty good read of the 'temperature' of AdWords.
AWA
We just got another whole slew of them in. We're having anagram contests in the office to see who can guess which words are which.
Friday entertainment, at least. ;-)
Many thanks, bakedjake. And thanks for your sense of humor as well. :)
...Spoke to a very nice girl named Meghan (Megan?) as I couldn't get a hold of our account rep, and she indicated she would pass the problem on to tech. Since first level support knew about it, I wouldn't classify the problem as "rare".
Heheh. She knew because, shortly after your post #24, I contacted the entire email and phone team - asking them to be especially alert for this issue.
And this may make you smile, bakedjake: while you were speaking with her, she was Instant Messaging me to let me know she had an example to send to the tech folks. I had a feeling it might be you she was speaking with. ;)
AWA, just a bit of feedback: I wish at times like these we could go straight to tech. I'm not complaining, as Meghan was very nice, but I think things may be resolved quicker if tech to tech could speak, so to say.
I agree - that would be ideal. And I'll quote you on it. ;)
AWA
Hoping to get back the money from the lost clicks.
Has anyone heard anything from Google on this? I fired off an email when it was first noticed but am still waiting for a response.
Hoping to get back the money from the lost clicks.
OK, I've got some follow up info on this. I've been away from my desk most of the afternoon, and am a bit late in responding to some open questions.
First, a quick note to andystowell - Monday is traditionally the busiest day for email, and that is especially the case today - as we're getting some 'extra' email about the recent policy change, as one might expect. In any case, I hope that you've received a response, or will very soon.
In any case, I've been tracking this issue with the engineering team, and have an update:
* The glitch is considered resolved. So, please, if you see evidence to the contrary in your account, we'd certainly like to hear the details. ;)
* Engineering has been able to identify the affected advertisers, and will also be able to pinpoint the affected clicks in their accounts.
* There will be a proactive credit given to whose who were affected. I'm not yet sure as to the schedule for this, however, although I imagine that the time frame will be measured in days rather than hours or minutes.
So, again, my apology if you were affected, and thanks very much for your patience.
AWA
Out of sheer curiosity, can you comment any further on what actually caused it? We were guessing a bug in an encryption routine.
As far as feedback goes, we've seen no further odd clicks since Friday afternoon.
My regards to Meghan, yourself and the G staff; thanks for keeping us in the loop as much as possible.
thanks to you AWA for the update!
Out of sheer curiosity, can you comment any further on what actually caused it? We were guessing a bug in an encryption routine.
Bakedjake, I wasn't really privy to the real nitty gritty details, so I'm not able to offer any insight. Sorry.
Instead I'll fall back on an old saying from my friend Rob B., who, when anything went wrong with anything, such as his car, his computer, his wife's cat, or his ____________ (insert anything), would simply remark that the decravinator was broken.
I'm pretty sure that was the problem here as well. ;)
AWA
Thanks for your help.
Andy
Still waiting...Will report back when it has been done.
I didn't get a note regarding any refund, but for sure I've seen the wrong urls in my tracking list.
Hang in there, tsinoy. As I mentioned above, it'll take several days for all of these credits to go out.
AWA
thank you...
patient2all
