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Just finished Business Week's provocative investigation of click fraud in online advertising. Well worth checking out, particularly if you or you company is involved in (or considering) pay-per-click on search sites like Yahoo or Google.

Those of you familiar with the Spyware "industry" will recognize some of the same mechanisms at play in the article's deconstruction of click fraud—including the involvement of sketchy, nefarious third-parties riding the system's vulnerability to big profits.

Given BW's broad audience, the piece understandably focuses on big search sites. So where does that leave B to B trade publications and portals that increasingly promote pay-per-click ad buys? My guess is, the relatively low volume of click-throughs makes it much easier to separate fraudulent clicks from "real" ones. We won't have to wait long to hear from our colleagues in business to business media: with October comes the height of planning activities for 2007 media budgets. So what say you, Mr. or Ms. Business to Business Media Rep?