With businesses of every size placing more emphasis on the online world, drawing in website traffic has become a major business.
But while the original goal was to get humans visiting sites, some people have bypassed this need for people through the use of bots.
The name ‘bot’ comes from a shortened version of ‘robot’ and refers to software applications or scripts that can perform simple tasks on command, particularly repetitive tasks.
Bots have been in use for a while, simplifying the tasks of programmers and also making it easier for cybercriminals to send out scams en mass, but recently the number of bots in use reached a major milestone by making up half of all internet traffic.
Data Incapsula found that 51% of all internet traffic in 2012 was made up of “non-humans”, primarily in the form of bots.
What’s more, Incapsula reported that telling the difference between human and non-human traffic was incredibly difficult for website owners.
“…Although most website owners rely on Google analytics to track who’s visiting their site, Google simply doesn’t show you 51% of your site’s traffic including some seriously shady non-human visitors including hackers, scrapers, spammers and spies of all sorts who are easily thwarted, but only if they’re seen and blocked,” Incapulsa co-founder Marc Gaffan said on the company’s blog.
But as well as potential threats, what this research shows is that web owners could easily assume they are getting more traffic because of human interaction, when bots are playing just as much of a role in the stats.
Website traffic data is a huge currency online, helping companies and entrepreneurs market websites and sell space to advertisers, so on a very basic level bigger numbers means more money.
The implications are significant. While there are some people that would have very little awareness about the influence of bots, others may be using them to bolster site stats and boost profits.
A report in The Atlantic explains how bots can be used to make more money using a case study of an anonymous publisher who was actually purchasing bot traffic for this very reason.
“In this case, the publisher paid $10,000 to $35,000 for the cheapest possible traffic, which companies domiciled outside the United States could provide for about $0.002 per visit,” the article explains.
“Then, they turned around and sold those visits for between $0.0025 and $0.004 through advertising networks, which act as clearinghouses for bulk advertising buys across the web.”
A bit of number crunching with the given circumstances shows that in this example, the publishing site would have made $2.1 million every month “without ever creating anything that a human might want to look at.”
Internet or Bot Net?
The rise of bots has covered more than just advertising revenue. Research has also found that that algorithms and computerised trading programs that fall into the “bot” category account for 70% of all trading on Wall Street and more than 30% in the UK.
As Big Think contributor and digital thinker Dominic Basulto puts it: “we are no longer talking about the Internet, we are talking about the Bot Net.”
“When we turn on CNBC to check on the stock market, we may look for traders down in the pits, but all the real action is happening inside computerized black boxes. The quants have won,” he says.
“Trillions of dollars of market value are being traded between computers, with many holding positions in time periods measured by nanoseconds. The faster your computer, the more money that you make – humans simply can not (sic) keep up.”
While Basulto has a point – there are definitely not enough humans or fast enough human response times to keep up with bots – there is a chance that things could change in the future.
The online world is constantly changing and people and businesses are adapting to what is available when it comes to technology.
Take for example, the facial recognition software currently being rolled out at petrol stations and shopping centres around Australia: it is designed to make advertising more targeted and effective for customers by gauging interest and moods.
Similar technology and strategies are constantly being developed and updated in the online world, highlighting that traffic numbers are just one part of the picture.
In the end, when it comes to software versus people, businesses are always going to be more interested in humans than bots. People are, after all, the ones with money to spend.
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