Nielsen//Netratings unveils "visits" metrics

Chalk up another online measurement firm which is trading in the traditional pageview metric in favor of a visits measuring tool. Today, Nielsen//Netratings unveiled a visits metrics system which measures total minutes and total session spens with a website; the tool will supercede the prior rankings system.

by Kristina Knight

Why the change in measuring online traffic? Because the web is changing so fast.

With the advent of newer technologies like AJAX and online video, simply measuring how many people click onto a website is not enough of a measurement according to many experts. Instead, online publishers and retailers need to now measure how long users are engaged with the website.

"It ensures fair measurement of dWeb sites 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, director, product marketing for the NetView service.

The announcement of the Nielsen//Netratings change follows a similar measurement change from comScore. That company in February announced a similar measurement tool which measures the length of website engagement rather than simple clicks.

The proposed change will likely have a huge impact for giants Google and Yahoo. According to the report, Google will likely drop several notches because users don't stay on Google sites as long as they stay on other websites. Meanwhile AOL will likely see a jump because, according to one report, their users logged in more than 25 billion minutes on-site in May.