News
Page Views No Longer Adequate
10/07/2008
Rich Internet technologies like AJAX and streaming video (think YouTube) have greatly enhanced the online experience, yet pose special challenges to Internet audience measurement. In a move designed to address these challenges, Internet research firm Nielsen/NetRatings has changed its web traffic reports to look at 'total minutes' spent on a site instead of just page views.
Technologies like AJAX, which can update parts of page content without needing to reload the entire page, mean that page views alone are no longer a reliable means of tracking interaction with a website. Page minutes are more reliable, because they are "independent of site design", says NetRatings.
Some of the figures that have emerged as a result of this new metric make interesting reading. Over May 2007, MSN and Windows Live clocks up the most audience minutes (largely down to Messenger's IM ubiquity), with 4.24bn minutes. eBay came second with 1.8bn minutes followed by Google with 1.37bn minutes
Technologies like AJAX, which can update parts of page content without needing to reload the entire page, mean that page views alone are no longer a reliable means of tracking interaction with a website. Page minutes are more reliable, because they are "independent of site design", says NetRatings.
Some of the figures that have emerged as a result of this new metric make interesting reading. Over May 2007, MSN and Windows Live clocks up the most audience minutes (largely down to Messenger's IM ubiquity), with 4.24bn minutes. eBay came second with 1.8bn minutes followed by Google with 1.37bn minutes