Intern error could hurt Google for up to $ 10 million

A mistake an intern made while training with Google's ad system could result in a million dollar loss to the Mountain View company. The wobble ran a series of blank ads on websites and apps for 45 minutes until everything was fixed.

Google has confirmed the error and has assured that it will honor the payments made, but did not quote amounts. An industry source told the Financial Times that the potential for injury in this case is high and could top $ 10 million, but in fact it is likely that the exact amount will never be confirmed publicly.

"An advertising training exercise resulted in an error in which actual spending occurred on websites for approximately 45 minutes, " Google said. “As soon as we learned of this mistake without malicious intent, we worked quickly to stop the circulation of campaigns.”

The mistake

It all happened during a training with advertising interns when they were looking at Google's electronic ad platform. One of the trainees would have gone overboard and unintentionally placed an order to "buy" ads that went unnoticed by the instructors.

As if that were not enough, the intern made the offer at $ 25 CPM (cost per thousand impressions), well above the average of $ 2 to $ 4 normally paid by the company.

The requests were made through Google's Ad Exchange (AdX) system, which allows you to purchase real-time ad slots on websites and apps - this platform is Google's bridge between who wants to advertise and who wants to receive an ad. in your space

As FT reports, however, exposure to simple human failure shows the vulnerability of automated and highly technological systems such as Google's AdX.

Intern error could hurt Google up to $ 10 million via TecMundo