Just noticed that google are monitoring click throughs on their standard searches now.

I did a search for "car" to grab a link and this is how google now links to its standard listings:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=U&sta...ar.com/&e=9818

Looks like a way to monitor CTR if in not mistaken (which i might be).

I know people have said google have been doing this for a while but this is the first time that i have seen the code on standard searches not PPC.

They have been running them off and on for several months.

of course the usual paranoia is setting in

my comments are the fourth one down.

Hehe, not so much paranoia as a possible oppertunity.

If google did implement CTR monitoring that effects SERP then how long before people are coding multi threaded browsers with http proxy list capabilities like some mass mailer programs out there to effect the results. Some people already have that sort of software to cheat adsense and other PPC schemes.

Google are really trying to keep under wraps just how flawed their anti fraud system is as it mainly relies on fraudulent links coming from the same geographical location to trigger the alarm bells.

My company is currently working an an apache log file analyser that will automatically generate fraud reports, hopefully it will help but the whole PPC system has been designed very easy to cheat.