(Continued)

This led companies to develop policing technologies touted as antidotes to the problem. But some marketing executives estimate that up to 20 percent of fees in certain advertising categories continue to be based on nonexistent consumers in today's search industry.

The persistence of click fraud has exposed a fundamental weakness in the promising business of Internet search marketing, but most advertisers aren't sure how to address the problem.

In one recent example of the problem, law enforcement officials say a California man created a software program that he claimed could let spammers bilk Google out of millions of dollars in fraudulent clicks. Authorities said he was arrested while trying to blackmail Google for $150,000 to hand over the program. He was indicted by a California jury in June.

Still on Monday, the BBC is investigating the possibility of launching its own low-cost PC terminal, bundled with cheap broadband internet access. In an interview with the Guardian, the corporation’s new media director, Ashley Highfield, said that he is committed to using the BBC to overcome the country’s digital divide, and a BBC low-cost broadband service would advance this, similar to the success of the BBC’s DTT project, Freeview.

The offering is still in the planning stages. “A few people have come together to see if we could put a low-end connected PC into the market. Could we do it? I don't know, but we would have to be clear about why," Mr. Highfield told the UK newspaper.

In other news, on Tuesday, a Feedback Research survey indicated that of the respondents who go to the movies, 24% said that they have bought flick tickets online.

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