MS Guilty of Issuing Data-Skewing MSNbots

A Bing webmaster representative has come forward admitting that Microsoft is guilty of utilizing a MSNbot to click onto adCenter ads.

A MSNbot is basically a web-crawling robot issued by Microsoft to supplement the Bing search engine. This is how documents and web pages are collected to sustain a searchable index. Google and Yahoo both have their own versions of web-crawling bots, named Googlebot and Slurp respectively.

One of the areas of concern for Microsoft's Bing has always been advertising. Because the "decision engine" is still a relatively new search medium, Microsoft is under constant pressure to make improved connections between online consumers and the products and services they seek.

This will, in turn, prove to the rest of the tech world that advertising with Bing works. This means that more advertisers will flock to Bing, translating into increased revenue and more kickbacks for Microsoft.

Why would Microsoft knowingly issue a MSNbot to click adCenter ads?

The first (and most devious) suspicion is that Microsoft was issuing the MSNbot for illegal financial gains. If Microsoft dupes advertisers with false clicks, and the advertiser has a pre-existing agreement with Microsoft to pay a fixed amount per click, Microsoft could be in for some serious cash. (Source: technews.am)

While the nameless webmaster did admit that the practice is going on, he remained adamant that Microsoft will never charge advertisers for bot clicks. These types of clicks are filtered out and have no chance of being charged to the advertiser.

Skewed Numbers Cloud Actual Figures

So why engage in the practice at all?

It is now believed that Microsoft issues a MSNbot to skew numbers, or in other terms, give the impression that their advertisements are faring better than is actually true. If these bots are clicking and indexing on a continual basis, it messes with the analytical data. This data may include: click-through rates, impressions, conversion metrics and so on. (Source: seroundtable.com)

A recent study showed that Bing ads convert higher and drive a higher click-through rate (a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign), but if bots are skewing the data, an actual estimate for success can never be measured.