Online advertising company DoubleClick Inc. said on Wednesday it will launch an exchange to connect buyers and sellers of digital advertisements in the third quarter.

The DoubleClick Advertising Exchange service is currently being tested in the United States and is expected to be available globally by the end of 2007, the company said in a statement.

Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Google Inc. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL unit have been reported to have expressed interest in purchasing DoubleClick, which is majority-owned by San Francisco-based private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman.

Google, on Wednesday disclosed data showing that while its pay-per-click Web advertising system is under regular attack from fraudsters, virtually all such tricks are automatically detected, rebuffing critics who say its online ads are a magnet for fraud.

Click fraud can occur when Web site publishers attempt to trick Google’s ad system into counting ads never seen by real users, or when competitors use automated programs to create fake clicks, driving up charges per click and rivals’ ad rates.

Invalid clicks also regularly occur if consumers click on an ad then instantly click the back button to exit the ad. Google discounts both.

Financially, what this means for Google is that its computers automatically reject up to 10 percent of potential advertising billings. At current revenue levels, every percentage point of invalid clicks the company forgoes costs Google $100 million in lost revenue, the product manager said.

Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google’s product manager for trust and safety, said in an interview that, on average, up to 10 percent of pay-per-click activity is invalid, and in some cases fraudulent, but that its computers automatically detect virtually all such problems, meaning advertisers pay nothing.

The sin of vanity will whisper in your ear, telling you how impressive your stats are. It’s easy to get caught up with the number of hits your Web site has gained or how many referrers you’ve added or even which keywords are most popular. But if you get buried in the numbers and lose sight of your customer, there’s a downside as well.

Pride. Greed. Envy. There are plenty of sins in the Web analytics world, and some of them can even be deadly.
Indeed, while there are any number of little mistakes you could make analyzing your data — like basing important business decisions on hits instead of unique visitors or neglecting the 20 percent of search terms that could be sending droves of visitors through your virtual doors — some mistakes can be downright sinful.

Ultimately, the seven deadly sins of Web analytics violate your corporate goal of optimizing your site to turn online traffic into online sales. If you find yourself in the midst of these seven sins, it’s time to change your ways and set yourself free from the snares of wasted time and money.

Online retailer Amazon reported that its profits plummeted in the year-end quarter of 2006 despite record holiday-season sales.

Amazon’s net income for its fourth fiscal quarter was 98 million dollars, or 23 cents per share, as compared with 199 million dollars, or 47 cents per share, during the same period in 2005.

Executives said that the loss of a tax benefit resulted in the government taking a bigger chunk of its revenues in 2006.

The Seattle, Washington-based Internet company had also continued spending money on its strategy of diversifying stocks of goods and wooing devotees with free shipping of purchases by members of its subscription Amazon Prime service.

Amazon told analysts in a conference call that effort was paying off and that it was optimistic regarding the company’s future. The earnings results beat forecasts by a penny a share.

Americans lost about $49.3 billion in 2006 to criminals who stole their identities, an 11.5 percent decline that may reflect increased vigilance among consumers and businesses, a study released on Thursday shows.

Losses declined from a revised $55.7 billion in 2005, according to the third annual study by Javelin Strategy & Research. They had increased in each of the prior two years.

The average identity theft fraud fell 9 percent to $5,720 from $6,278, while the median — where half were larger and half were smaller — held steady at $750.

“Businesses are doing a better job screening, and consumers are doing better at locking up information and monitoring their accounts,” said James Van Dyke, founder and president of Pleasanton, California-based Javelin, in an interview.

“The dollar amount is dropping,” he added, “but $49 billion is still a lot of money.”