Web page rankings reviewed
The internet metrics firm Nielsen/NetRatings has announced that it will change the different criteria used to measure consumer behaviour across different websites.
In addition to the existing metrics the firm will provide measures of the total number of minutes an individual user spent on a particular site, as well as recording the total number of sessions.
Including the additional data was prompted by developments in the complexity of web pages as well as the growth in online video and rich media content, trends which both render the previously common pages viewed measurement much less useful.
"’Total minutes’ is the best engagement metric in this initial stage of web 2.0 development, not only because it ensures fair measurement of websites using RIA and streaming media, but also of web environments that have never been well-served by the page view, such as online gaming and internet applications," said Scott Ross, a director at Nielsen/NetRatings.
The new measurements showed that AOL’s family of sites ranked highest for engagement across US consumers in May, with 25 billion minutes compared to 19.6 billion for Yahoo! in second place.
