Google Releases Ad Injection Report; It Also Brings 2 Million People Online In India

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Kicking The Habit

A new report on ad injection released by Google, New York University and the International Computer Science Institute found pay-per-install networks drove more than 3 billion attempted downloads of malicious software. Four companies in particular were noted for their flagrant PPI fraud: Amonetize, OpenCandy, Outbrowse and the now-defunct InstallMonetizer. Google also called out Yahoo, Skype and Opera – tsk tsk – for doing business with those networks. Google has shown itself to be unusually open to sharing the names of bad actors when it comes to ad injectors (see this report from a year ago). George Slefo has the story at Ad Age.

Race For India

Mark Zuckerberg has fought hard to get India’s population of 1.3 billion on the internet (or his part of the internet, at least). But even Facebook is David to another Goliath. While Facebook’s Free Basics initiative flopped in the country, Google has been able to offer free Wi-Fi at about two dozen train stations to bring roughly 2 million people online, Bloomberg reports. Google plans to expand to 100 stations by the end of the year. After its mobile data plan failed, Facebook is taking a cue from Google in its development of Express Wi-Fi, a digital voucher that offers users affordable data plans. More.

Ouch, Yelp

Yelp has been very active in pressing for antitrust actions against Google. It’s a complainant in the EU’s ongoing case against Google and is a vocal critic of the search giant’s “monopolistic” practices in the name of user experience. But if you come at the king, you best not miss. Google recently debuted a revamped Zagat (which it owns), pushing those reviews and ratings up search results for local restaurant queries (along with top publisher reviews). The new format demotes Yelp to page three on mobile queries.

Olympic Fail

NBC’s ratings for the Rio Olympics opening ceremony on Friday didn’t live up to its ad sales hype. The network saw a 28% drop from the 2012 London Olympics, Adweek reports. The overnight ratings of 17.2% reflect the lowest opening ceremony ratings since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Ouch. Users on social media voiced dissatisfaction with NBC’s decision to air the ceremony with a one-hour delay, as well as an oversaturation of commercials during the ceremony. If low ratings continue, NBC may have to offer make-goods later in the games. More.

But Wait, There’s More!