the chances of reinstalling is very low. im sure people is smarter to do a backup or ghost of the OS instead need to reinstall all over again. even if people reinstall why should they go to the same website to download firefox
Firefox plus Google Toolbar: a conversion occurs when a user downloads Firefox through your referral button and runs it for the first time. Your referral must be a Windows user, who has not previously installed Firefox, in order for you to receive credit
From a "what are their goals" standpoint, I'd think that Google would want to pay even if it's a computer that has had Firefox installed on it before. (i.e., same mac address.) What they're really paying for is the Google Toolbar. The user could go straight to Mozilla and download Firefox without the toolbar. Without firefox referrals, that's what would happen. Does Google no longer value the Google toolbar? I don't think that's the answer. Can they even see the mac address for a referral? That being said, my numbers are too low to account for people who've reformatted and are now reloading their chosen browser. Basically, that's saying 80-90% of my conversions are from "return customers" because that's the level of hit I'm taking here. And I don't buy it. (Annoyingly, it looks like this will be my BEST day ever for CLICKS in a very, very long time.) -- Leva
Okay, I'll be the first to say it. Anyone else having problems logging into their account? Google's got mine down for technical difficulties. Ya think? Hopefully the "technical difficulties" involve a few swift kicks to whatever box manages our conversions and a re-calculation of the last week's stats, ending in a very large and satisfying credit of money. And if that happens, I'm taking my honey out for dinner. -- Leva
I hope they credit us, but I highly doubt it. They took 100% of my last months earnings out of my account for "invalid clicks" which I'm already pissed off about but I won't get into.
i could not log in earlier today either.. but now it's fine.. No update from my "escalation" yet... and, there is no way in heck that recording MAC address would account for the drop in my numbers.. I just can't imagine that many hundreds of people downloading, installing, reformatting and reinstalling again..
Has everyone here who has had an issue sent an email to Google? I feel like they don't think this is a widespread issue.
I've sent two e-mails, and they haven't responded to either -- they've had four business days. FWIW, my conversions are even worse today for Firefox today, and I haven't had ONE Googlepack conversion when I'd expect to have 10-15 on a normal day. (And this is a way-above-average day.) Googlepack wasn't previously impacted but I'm beginning to think the problem has spread to it. -- Leva
I am honestly not sure what to do. Google has had ample time now to respond, even allowing for them to take time to craft a corporate-speak response. If I remove the referrals and stick something more profitable there, I could miss out on a credit if they decide to do an adjustment on the missing conversions. If they DON'T credit us, and this is, actually, a deliberate change to the program ... then I'm missing out what I could make with an affiliate link in that spot. Google really needs to SAY something. They're fully within their rights to change the program if that's the issue, but I really resent being left in the dark on this. -- Leva
You would think that even if Google was making this the new standard, they would at least reply to someone. I'm going to start emailing them every day.
This problem has been confirmed as a bug by my inside contact at Google.. You can read the entire 2-paragraph exclusive report in my blog, but basically they know about it, and are working on a fix.. the whole "invalid clicks" thing was just a cover story
hope they fix it for you. am glad i was never into firefox, just not for me. Ps. tera, i sent you pm a few days back, you never replied?
Yay. Thank you for posting this. I'm not surprised, but am relieved to get confirmation. Now, on my end, if users are not able to download Firefox from Google, they tend to whip off nasty e-mails at me tell me that "my site" is broken. You can look at my site to see how prominent my disclaimer is that I'm Not Mozilla -- but the users miss it on a regular basis. I haven't gotten one e-mail from a user claiming they couldn't download it. So, Google's been making conversions ... . Bet we get a credit eventually. It may well be on Google's end that all the uncredited conversions are showing as "invalid" so they have a record of what we should get. -- Leva
My firefox #'s are on the very low side of normal this morning. Looks like they fixed it late last night. Here's to hoping it STAYS fixed. -- Leva
Mine is still low, but too early to tell. I'm used to 40-50% conversion to click, and I have 8 clicks with 2 conversions. But again, its a bit early.