Measuring Success on the Web: A Fundamental Question in Advertisers' Minds

As the web continues to grow, with more users logging on every day, a critical question remains unanswered: who is surfing the Net, and how can it be proved? This lack of clarity has left advertisers wary, as there is currently no single measurement service that every web site and advertiser can agree on. At Internet World, the industry's largest trade show, Relevant Knowledge, an Atlanta-based company, hopes to provide an answer and help create a standard by measuring the popularity of web sites in a way similar to Nielsen's TV ratings.

Key Takeaways:

• Relevant Knowledge, Media Metrix, and NetRatings are among the top companies competing to provide a standard measurement service for the web.
• Companies are currently using software installed in PCs to measure web activity, but the advent of high-speed Internet access and set-top boxes could revolutionize the measurement industry.
• Mary Ann Packo, president of Media Metrix, noted that the measurement field is "new and young," with room for multiple measures, but a single standard will eventually emerge.
• The increasing popularity of broadband services could provide opportunities for web measurers to install measuring devices as part of the service, such as in set-top boxes or cable modems.
• Jeff Levy, co-founder of Relevant Knowledge, emphasized that a single company will not dominate the measurement business, and peace will not be achieved in the industry.
• High-speed Internet access could impact how measurement companies adapt their methods, potentially leading to new ways of measuring web activity.

Statistics:

• 10 million: The number of homes that could have a set-top box capable of telling when people turn the volume down, according to Jeff Levy.
• Multiple: The number of measurement companies competing in the industry, as noted by Mary Ann Packo.

Sources:

• "I-World; Relevant Knowledge Plans to Polygraph Web Surfers." By Frances Katz, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Source not available (print edition cited).
• Internet World conference attendees.