The Unjustified Google Panic (Seeking Alpha)

Remember the panic which ensued when comScore (SCOR) announced that Google's paid-click rate was declining? Henry Blodget went so far as to call it a "Google Disaster", and the shares plunged.

But it turns out that the comScore data aren't nearly as disastrous as they might look at first blush. The company has a long blog entry on the subject which explains that it very much looks as though Google is doing this on purpose. In a nutshell, Google is running fewer ads, with higher minimum bids, which are more relevant for web searchers.