Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you expand on this?
Of course not, because it's false.
How much of your audience is fake?
71–80 of 94 posts
Re: How much of your audience is fake?
#72This is exactly why social networks are far less valuable than properties like Google that started with algorithmic foundations as opposed to rebranding the next geocities. I'll never trust facebooks numbers on their fake profiles especially when Yahoo kills close to 1mil fake profiles every month and while Ashley Madison was rife with them. Reddit started this way too, with tons of bots, fake accounts etc. We just d…
I personally know the founder of an SEO company that is running around 50 fake searches per second as I type this.
Some outfits don't just do fake searches but also fake downloads. E.g. visit https://bintray.com/groovy/maven/groovy/view/statistics#stat... then click on date range "1 year" and wonder why the daily download numbers suddenly multiplied by 10 in late May. You'll have trouble believing the 2.5 million download number for Groovy from Bintray, and wonder how long they've been running the same ploy with Maven.
Re: How much of your audience is fake?
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you expand on this?
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/31/ashley-madison-refutes-clai... http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/statement-from-avid-... This refutation was widely reported, although unsurprisingly not as much as the original cockup.
Press statements aren't delivered under oath, I am not exactly going to take a press release with no details as gospel truth.
Re: How much of your audience is fake?
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very interesting. I assume that he is doing that in order to collect up-to-date search result data. Or is he actually attempting to manipulate search results (or AdWords ratings) in some way?
It's to manipulate the 'auto-complete' feature.
Bingo. That, and clicking on results that are further down actually does help propel them higher.
Re: How much of your audience is fake?
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
From an advertiser's point of view, those fake profiles are still real humans, right? So your ad is still being seen, and those Facebook profiles probably share enough of the social graph with a real Facebook profile that you can still do demographic targeting, no?
>* those fake profiles are still real humans, right?* This is true. I'm more thinking along the lines of "we have 1 billion active users!" > you can still do demographic targeting, no? This I'm not so sure about. Some targeting, sure. But the fake profiles make it more difficult, since the demographic data is also fake.
These are completely fake, synthetic profiles. This is why you can buy them here: https://www.google.com/search?q=buy+facebook+accounts&oq=buy...
Re: How much of your audience is fake?
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
From an advertiser's point of view, those fake profiles are still real humans, right? So your ad is still being seen, and those Facebook profiles probably share enough of the social graph with a real Facebook profile that you can still do demographic targeting, no?
From an ad network's point of view, maybe, but from a publisher's point of view, no. This is just another variation on click fraud, because fake people don't buy real goods. If you actually read the article, the Heineken advertiser's response is: > “It was like we’d been throwing our money to the mob,” Amram says. “As an advertiser we were paying for eyeballs and thought that we were buying views. But in the digital…
Inside a counterfeit Facebook farm http://theweek.com/articles/560046/inside-counterfeit-facebo...
Re: How much of your audience is fake?
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Citation needed. (I would be most interested.)
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/31/ashley-madison-refutes-clai... http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/statement-from-avid-...
That's a press release and reporting of a press release. It's a blank assertion it's false in the face of a research result. It carries no weight.
Re: How much of your audience is fake?
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/31/ashley-madison-refutes-clai... http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/statement-from-avid-... This refutation was widely reported, although unsurprisingly not as much as the original cockup.
Press statements aren't delivered under oath, I am not exactly going to take a press release with no details as gospel truth.
The gizmodo reporter herself admitted she was wrong. And then launched another attack to try and hide her cockup.
Re: How much of your audience is fake?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/31/ashley-madison-refutes-clai... http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/statement-from-avid-...
That's a press release and reporting of a press release. It's a blank assertion it's false in the face of a research result. It carries no weight.
Gizmodo themselves admit they were wrong.
The reporter originally claimed there were something like 5,000,000 women bots and 12,000 real women. Turns out the numbers were more like the other way around.
I'm not linking to her article admitting her mistake as it's pathetic how she tries to cover up her mistake with more allegations based on incomplete data.
This is a perfect example of why blogs shouldn't be relied on as news sources, and you're the one asking me for citations? Where are your citations?
Re: How much of your audience is fake?
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you expand on this?
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/31/ashley-madison-refutes-clai... http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/statement-from-avid-... This refutation was widely reported, although unsurprisingly not as much as the original cockup.
That TechCrunch article actually provides several reasons why you should not believe the press release. Did you think it supported your claims?