Released on: December 20, 2007, 11:04 pm

Press Release Author: cyberpromote GmbH

Industry: Internet & Online

Press Release Summary: Microsoft\'s MSN search engine has millions of links to
Google\'s AdWords and AdSense programs, unintentionally producing clicks for Google
clients.

Press Release Body: The German based search engine optimization firm cyberpromote
(www.cyberpromote.com) recently detected curious links in the search engine results
of MSN during analysis for their clients. The analysis revealed that these links
happen to be paid links from Google\'s AdWords and AdSense programs.

\"These are not singular cases, rather there are several million links within the MSN
index,\" states Thomas Kaiser, CEO of cyberpromote.

Google may possibly be pleased that every click on these results could produce an
increased number of hits within the Adwords and AdSense accounts. Questionable is
whether or not Google examines the referrer of each hit. cyberpromote could not
verify whether or not costs are incurred for clients due to these links.

Microsoft undoubtedly has no interest in having these links indexed in their MSN
search engine. Furthermore, these occurrences are surprising since Google has
enforced certain implementations to prevent these links from being indexed. The
robots.txt file at http://www.google.com/robots.txt contains the relevant entries to
prevent the indexing.

\"It is incomprehensible why Google\'s robots.txt file is disregarded by MSN,
especially due to the obvious reason that it is only detrimental towards Microsoft\",
continued Mr. Kaiser.

As a general rule, all search engines adhere to the entries within robots.txt files.
In addition, AdSense links should not be indexed since the entries at
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/robots.txt clearly state not to index these
links.

During analysis pertaining to specified keywords, cyberpromote found high search
engine positions in the MSN results which belong to Google\'s Adwords and AdSense
programs. Due to the strong positions of these links, it is relevant that they will
usually result in a substantial number of hits.

After finding these existing links, cyberpromote\'s inquiries pertaining to Google\'s
AdSense program produced more than one million links within the MSN index (see
screenshots). The links for the AdWords program produced an even more startling
number with over 4 million indexed results.

It is assumed that Microsoft will most likely delete these links shortly after the
notification of these facts. In any case, it is also likely that Microsoft will
investigate the reasons as to why the robots.txt files have been ignored. A
problematic issue concerns MSN\'s lack of identifying these links clearly as
advertising links. Conclusively, these links are advertisements, regardless of any
unintentional forms.

For the clients of the AdWords and AdSense campaigns, it would be helpful if Google
stated whether or not clicks from these links are calculated. Up until now the
statements from Google pertaining to invalid clicks have been vague at best. On the
other hand, one can also argue that regardless of whether or not these links are
calculated, the quality of visitors may still be advantageous.


This press release including additional screen shots can be found at
http://www.cyberpromote.de/presse/pressemitteilungen.htm



Web Site: http://www.cyberpromote.com

Contact Details: Contact:
cyberpromote GmbH
Mr. Thomas Kaiser
Liebigstr. 1
85301 Schweitenkirchen
GERMANY

Tel: +49(0)8444/9248-100
Email: presse (at) cyberpromote.com
__________________________________________________________
cyberpromote GmbH
Liebigstr. 1
D-85301 Schweitenkirchen
Phone: +49 (0)8444/9248-100
Fax: +49 (0)8444/9248-299
Email: presse@cyberpromote.com
visit our website at: www.cyberpromote.com
cyberpromote hotline: +49 (0) 180-2923777 (6 ct / Anruf)
Handelsregister Ingolstadt HRB 3916