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No double-digit click increases for Google again in comScore's assessment of paid click activity, as the firm found a mild 2.7 percent year over year rise in March.

Who to believe, we wonder, ahead of Google's Q1 2008 earnings announcement on Thursday. The forbidding news of less paid search clicking? The investors who have pushed shares of Google up ahead of today's opening bell? The idea that fewer clicks will be more profitable clicks, thanks to Google's rejection of low-quality ads?

On the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, Silicon Alley Insider said its sneak peek at comScore's report on paid clicks showed a "violent deceleration" for the first quarter. Growth in March of only 2.7 percent, Q1 growth of 2 percent year over year, they aren't happy numbers.

Citing Mark Mahaney of Citi, the post pointed to a couple of possible reasons for this relatively flat performance: Google's forceful efforts to make advertisers comply with AdWords quality guidelines, and a general decrease of commercial searches that would lead to ad clicks.

"Uh oh," Silicon Alley Insider said to that last one, while suggesting a combination of the two seemed likely.

VentureBeat picked up on more of the comScore report, gleaning a copy of it from UBS. "Once again we’re forced to wonder if this is actually bad news at all," they said.

We'll find out on Thursday.