If you are advertising on the Internet and are paying rates based on the number of readers clicking on your banner or search engine term, think again before you believe the figures. Click fraud cost advertisers $800 million last year, according to a study by the Outsell media research firm.

The company says as a result of the fraud, many advertisers are reducing their spend online. The fraud affects everyone, from publishers, advertisers, and big name online players like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

Click advertising works like this.

Software counts every time someone clicks on an ad. The advertisers share the revenue with Internet companies based on how many advertising clicks their websites generate.

Cheaters can generate more revenues by simply clicking on the ad repeatedly. The Outsell survey found that up to 14.6 percent of all clicks are bogus and three-quarters of advertisers said they had been victims at least once. Outsell found that 27 percent of advertisers reduced or stopped spending on click-based advertising.

Another 10 percent say they intend to curtail spending. The survey was based on the responses of 407 online advertisers in the US, with online spending ranging from several thousand dollars annually to $10 million.

Internet advertising in the US was worth $5.5 billion last year.

Here is the stupid move of the month. Business software supplier Oracle put a big ad in the Wall Street Journal that read: "Computer Associates Runs SAP". Those were the only words. At the bottom was Oracle's logo and contact information.

Computer Associates is currently facing legal difficulties, with federal prosecutors alleged that some of its former executives conspired to secretly manipulate more than $2 billion in revenue from 1999 to 2000 to prop up the company's stock price.

Oracle was attempting to make the point that the company's accounting difficulties were related to its use of SAP, a competitor. Commentators were quick to point out that Oracle also supplies Computer Associates with software.

"I was more than surprised ? and quite frankly, disappointed ? to see their ad," Computer Associates spokesman Bill Hughes told Computerworld.

The digital camera market is a boom happening on top of a boom, as consumers go mad for the latest technology. Nikon, the second largest maker of digital single-lens reflex cameras, reported it increased its shipments of the product by about 35 percent year-on-year in April and May. Canon had 53.3 percent of the global digital SLR market in 2005. Nikon holds 28.3 percent, according to the research firm IDC.

Overall Canon had a 17.2 percent share and Nikon a 9.3 percent share of the general digital camera market. Digital SLRs mimic their film using counterparts. The cameras' lens are interchangable and they have more advanced features than the cheaper compact models we use for snap and shoot photos.

@EDITRULE:

Cnet magazine has published its list of "worst technology" released in the second quarter of this year. Among the list are: Nyko Intelligent Remote 360 (worse use of the word "intelligent"); Kodak EasyShare One/6MP ("camera's image quality, bootup time, and controls will make you want to stop taking photos altogether"); And 1 Streetball ("not a very good video game"); JVC XA-F107B ("the bloated price must be due to the fact that it's an antique"); Pantech C300 ("really, really, really small"); X-Men: The Official Cash-In Game ("plugging your game controller into a ham sandwich while pushing buttons and making your own sound effects is more engaging"); FineDigital FineDrive GPS ("sometimes, it has no idea where you are"); and DigiArmor DMS-S29 ("It plays video, but not very well").

Those in business who are waiting for the next release of Microsoft's Office software package will have to wait a while longer. Last week the company announced it would postpone the release of the latest Office suite of software programmes.

Microsoft had scheduled the release of Office 2007 for businesses in October this year. The release has been put back to the end of the year, the company said.

Microsoft said it needs to improve the product's performance and design after feedback from business users using a test or beta version. Microsoft Office includes the Word, Excel and PowerPoint, a spreadsheet and presentation software.