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Statistical data from measurement firm comScore suggested Google's paid clicks in January remained flat from the same time last year; Wall Street is displeased.

This report is so shocking it bears repeating: ComScore said Google's US revenue units (paid clicks) grew 25% last quarter--a quarter that disappointed Wall Street. In January, the same source, comScore, says the same revenue units were flat.
Silicon Alley Insider blogger Henry Blodget isn't surprised that Google is not recession-proof

Who's toting the smoking gun that has shot Google's share price down nearly seven percent as of press time? Is it the searching public, hammered by inflation and rising energy prices, who are unwilling to do any post-holiday shopping?

Is it the whole paid click model, suddenly buried under a weight of too many ads on display and not nearly enough people clicking them, that has let Google down?

Has weeding out inadvertent clicks, something Google aggressively pursues, had an impact as MarketWatch noted?.

ComScore data being discussed by tech industry analysts contended Google experienced no January growth in paid clicks for January 2008, when compared year over year. Despite this change, Inside Chatter sees reasons for optimism:

As GOOG fizzles, though, opportunities for a non-Google controlled Web advertising boom grow!

What’s more, perhaps marketers will finally return to their normally rational ad buying behavior and STOP BIDDING UP THEIR OWN RATE CARDS IN THE BIG, BAD, VERY BLACK BOX GOOGLE AD MACHINE!

Google recently notified some advertisers they would be enrolled in an "automatic matching" program for their ads. The program seeks to serve ads to people who may be interested in the advertiser's offering.

This program's unveiling generated some criticism, as it is seen as a play for more of an advertiser's budget; the automatic matching may be turned off in the AdWords control panel.

If paid clicks are suffering as comScore believes, the move to automatic matching makes sense in context, even if Google has been developing it for some time. Advertisers may not want to pick up the tab to help Google's numbers, though.