By Nicholas Carlson

$90 million isn't enough.

Not for lead plaintiff Joseph Kinney and the other Internet advertisers who this week had their lawyers sue to block the $90 million settlement Google reached in a click fraud case in March.

The suit isn't about the money, said Kinney, proprietor of the informational Web site SafeSpaces.com.

"The issue is not merely one of economics to me," Kinney told internetnews.com, "I just think that companies like Google need to be accountable to the people that pay them and to the public. This [current] settlement is not going to achieve those goals."

In February 2005, Lane's Gifts and Collectibles and Caulfield Investigations filed a suit in Arkansas against Google, Yahoo, Time Warner and its America Online and its Netscape divisions.

In March, Google settled with the advertisers, agreeing to offer credits for all invalid clicks. Those credits could then be used to purchase new advertising with Google.

When Kinney's lawyer called to see if he was amenable to the proposed settlement, Kinney said no.

"I just told him that I was totally opposed to the settlement as it was tendered to me and I’d rather get nothing than participate in something that was an absolute travesty and joke," Kinney said.

In a statement responding to attempt to block the settlement Google said, "We have reached a fair settlement which has preliminary approval from the court."

But Kinney thinks that Arkansas court and its judge was part of the problem.

"The other thing that bothered me was the fact that they were trying to settle this in an Arkansas courtroom," Kinney said

"That place would be least likely and least reasonable for a settlement of this scope and magnitude," Kinney said, "I'm sure this judge doesn't have the experience or the intellectual resources necessary to evaluate what's going on here."

"I'm not bad mouthing the judge mind you, but Arkansas is just not the place to do this."

When Google reached its settlement in March, Search Engine Watch editor Danny Sullivan said on his blog that a $90 million settlement was "cheap" for Google.

More

what is a click fraud?

http://inews.webopedia.com/TERM/c/click_fraud.html

Why google *sniff*

P.S Nice sig,bleeding heart!!.

I am almost to the point where I hate Google and am fixing to never go to their site again.

Not necessarily for this, but for what they selectively return on searches.

I know I'm not getting information from them, and it's not an accident.

I'm almost positive they have an agenda and are not a pure search service.

Yep... almost to the point of revulsion and hate.

I never use Google. I perfer Yahoo. I think Yahoo is much easier to use.

i still dont understand click fraud.