Inflated figures
Randall Rothenberg, the new head of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), has written an open letter to audience measurement companies, ComScore and Nielsen NetRatings, demanding an audit of their measurement processes according to the FT.
Richard Waters comments that [in the midst of the current Web 2.0 hype] we've gone back to the bad old days where companies are being valued on the number of eyeballs they can attract.
Randall's letter comes after ComScore called for a change in Web measurement tools on the back of their own survey because of the explosion of podcasts and video and people becoming wise to clearing their cookies.
ComScore uses a panel of representative internet surfers over cookies whereas Nielsen argues for measuring website use in terms of the amount of time spent on pages rather than by number of views.
This reminds me of working with Site Intelligence during the dotcom boom when everyone knew people were inflating website figures but John Woods bravely came out and said as much as 80% of companies were fibbing (resulting in half a page in the Observer).
Woods said to gain an accurate picture of website use a combination of measurements is required because of the issue of cookies being cleared etc., rather than a single method for advertisers to determine a site's popularity.
Randall's letter says that the IAB has been calling on ComScore and Neilsen NetRatings to be independently audited since 1999. It's a shame that it has taken until now for the IAB to bear its teeth but better late than never as online advertising overtakes offline. Let's hope not just the cookies get cleaned up.
