Webmetrics

Nielsen Shifts Focus on Web Stats

In a major departure from the way website statistics have been measured in the past, the Nielsen/NetRatings organization has implemented a major shift in measuring website effectiveness. Whereas page views have been traditionally used as measurements, Nielsen will now measure the time spent on a site as a major indicator.

As an example, Nielsen/NetRating shows where measurements in May show MySpace.com has 10.4 page views for each page viewed on YouTube. However, using time spent instead shows MySpace.com users spending 3.6 minutes for each minute a user spends in YouTube. According to Nielsen/Netrating, "YouTube visitors spend more time per page than MySpace because they are primarily watching videos, requiring fewer page refreshes." They believe the exploding use of "Web 2.0" technologies makes total time spent the most important comparison for audience engagement.

If interested in more detail, you can download and read a copy of Nielsen/NetRating's announcement.