Still, time spent is not that much better. Unlike spending time with family and friends, quality of interaction is much more important than quantity when it comes to relevance.
I know I sound like a broken record by now, but in my books, user action does not equal user intent and YOU CAN'T SHARE MEANING UNTIL YOU'VE SHARED CONTEXT!
How do you measure shared context? Maybe the metrics to look at are things like:
-Shared tags and favorite rankings -Shared actions like recommendations over time -Response over recommendations within one's network
That's just the beginning. The next shift is about exchanging intelligence between seeker and supplier with business model attached to that access, not the mere exchange of meaningless info.
That would be obvious if we just asked "What's really at work here?" but cash cows have a way of deluding ourselves. I'm glad that at least you asked. Nice!
Lindsey
· 2 years ago
How is counting time spent on AIM accurate? I'm logged into AIM 24/7 (via Trillian, not the actual AIM application), but rarely do I go on any of AOL's websites. How would giving AOL credit for that benefit the accuracy of changing the stats from page views to time spent?
Sean Mulholland
· 2 years ago
Time on site is a tricky metric...most analytics apps I've worked with depend on page refreshes to calculate it. HTTP is not a persistent protocol (i.e. once the page loads the connection shuts off). I can land on a Mashable page with 60 comments and read through for 10-20 minutes, but unless I click to another Mashable page I could be recorded as a bounce!
Single, extended page views may be compelling on some sites but analytics programs can have a world of difficulty measuring that. One common solution is a meta refresh to reload the page every X seconds to see if you're still there...and of course if I load a page and go to dinner I could be measured as being there for hours when I'm nowhere near the computer.
Since the biggies get their data from the ISP level perhaps there's a way around it, but I'd be curious to see how exactly they're measuring the data.
Matt Huggins
· 2 years ago
This seems like a fantastically simple and effective solution to the debate regarding unique page requests vs. AJAX requests.
Matt Huggins
· 2 years ago
I should clarify my above response. I think this is a great idea for comparing within a niche or core competency.
Derek Anderson
· 2 years ago
It's all what you make it out to be. We have to change it because someone is gaming it. Now, that "someone" will figure out how to game this new metric. Vicious cycle that never ends. I have never even bothered to pay any attention to the Nielsen/NetRatings. They could only be half accurate anyhow. I maintain three or four traffic monitors and they vary wildly. I'm not alone!
Daniel, Fashionising
· 2 years ago
It’s an interesting change, and a tweak that had to happen so that sites can properly gauge their reach. However, Lindsey raises an excellent point about the inaccuracy of such a measurement.
The other issue is going to be interest from the industry; sites which depend on a CPM advertising model depend on page views to generate revenue, such sites will be less supportive of the change and won’t be eager to take it up as a standard.
ian
· 2 years ago
Pageviews are still a good metric. It's been hurt by people who depend exclusively on this one variable.
Saying pageviews are a bad metric is like saying cheeseburgers can kill you. If you eat nothing but cheeseburgers for a year, yeah, maybe you'll die. But who would do that?...
Marc
· 2 years ago
Uhh, to answer the question about accuracy. It's not accurate. It is quite literally a guesstimate, and a poor one at that. This method was used in the late '90s if you remember. It turned out to be utterly useless. It's an old recycled idea and explains why Nielsen is rubbish.
Pageviews are so important. Why some web 2.0ers are trying to do away with them is beyond me. Nothing monetizes better than a freshly loaded page. The longer it sits the less valuable it becomes. Kind of like McDonalds french fries.
I fully expect Mashable to delete my comment as they seem to detest my criticisms.
Pete Cashmore
· 2 years ago
"I fully expect Mashable to delete my comment as they seem to detest my criticisms."
Umm...did we ever delete a comment before that wasn't spam? No. So why would we delete this?
Marc
· 2 years ago
Well I never spam and never leave a URL, but I have seen my comments disappear in the past. Perhaps they never appeared at all. It's happened quite a few times to me. Not sure what you use for filtering.
Pete Cashmore
· 2 years ago
Possibly Akismet. You need to mail us when this happens and we'll take a look. Most likely, they're in the spam folder.
Max
· 2 years ago
If pageviews are not longer users, will sites still be able to user CPM for banner/text ads they have on their site, etc...
All Comments
Still, time spent is not that much better. Unlike spending time with family and friends, quality of interaction is much more important than quantity when it comes to relevance.
I know I sound like a broken record by now, but in my books, user action does not equal user intent and YOU CAN'T SHARE MEANING UNTIL YOU'VE SHARED CONTEXT!
How do you measure shared context? Maybe the metrics to look at are things like:
-Shared tags and favorite rankings
-Shared actions like recommendations over time
-Response over recommendations within one's network
That's just the beginning. The next shift is about exchanging intelligence between seeker and supplier with business model attached to that access, not the mere exchange of meaningless info.
That would be obvious if we just asked "What's really at work here?" but cash cows have a way of deluding ourselves. I'm glad that at least you asked. Nice!
Single, extended page views may be compelling on some sites but analytics programs can have a world of difficulty measuring that. One common solution is a meta refresh to reload the page every X seconds to see if you're still there...and of course if I load a page and go to dinner I could be measured as being there for hours when I'm nowhere near the computer.
Since the biggies get their data from the ISP level perhaps there's a way around it, but I'd be curious to see how exactly they're measuring the data.
I have never even bothered to pay any attention to the Nielsen/NetRatings. They could only be half accurate anyhow.
I maintain three or four traffic monitors and they vary wildly. I'm not alone!
The other issue is going to be interest from the industry; sites which depend on a CPM advertising model depend on page views to generate revenue, such sites will be less supportive of the change and won’t be eager to take it up as a standard.
Saying pageviews are a bad metric is like saying cheeseburgers can kill you. If you eat nothing but cheeseburgers for a year, yeah, maybe you'll die. But who would do that?...
Pageviews are so important. Why some web 2.0ers are trying to do away with them is beyond me. Nothing monetizes better than a freshly loaded page. The longer it sits the less valuable it becomes. Kind of like McDonalds french fries.
I fully expect Mashable to delete my comment as they seem to detest my criticisms.
Umm...did we ever delete a comment before that wasn't spam? No. So why would we delete this?