Google is now displaying their 'invalid click' numbers within the Adwords interface. (Yahoo, that's your queue.) It's a step in the right direction and they're to be congratulated. But it will not diminish the issue or the debate, which I suspect is their desire.

The reason is that 'invalid clicks' aren't the problem. 'Invalid clicks' is a term they made up to define the click fraud they know about or can reasonably detect. It's the manipulation of "right to life" and the parsing of "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" rolled into one.

Much of today's blog coverage gives them the headlines their PR folks want, making it sound like they've solved a problem. But as the comments here point out, they have not.

So we have invalid clicks, and fraudulent clicks, and Andrew over at Traffick adds one more asking why they charge for 'short visits'. While in some cases that can be an indication of fraud, certainly other traffic sources yield short visits so it isn't a conclusive indicator. It does however demonstrate it was a 'worthless click'. Maybe one day we'll get that stat in Adwords.

Clearly this topic is not going away.