18 July 2007
Nielsen Netratings have revealed that it will be focusing on total time spent on a website instead of page views.
This popularity yardstick has shifted more towards how TV audiences are recorded: by people who actually watch programmes or adverts rather than numbers of people who flick through channels.
Advertising and publishing companies are listening to the realisation that the relevance of page views has dropped. The system looks more at the popularity of Yahoo! Mail, YouTube and other Flash and Ajax services.
comScore, Nielsen rival, has already accommodated for this online shift by emphasising "visits" and therefore tracking user loyalty rather than page views. In turn this enables advertisers to easily assess their value.
However, time spent on web pages does have caveats, for example having a Facebook tab open all day does not mean users are casting their eyes over an advertising campaign for those full 12 hours.
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