Nielsen//NetRatings attempts to measure engagement

Nielsen//NetRatings posted their official announcement of the release of two new metrics in NetView, "Total Minutes" and "Total Sessions".

"'Total Minutes' is the best engagement metric in this initial stage of  Web 2.0 development, not only because it ensures fair measurement of Web sites using RIA [rich Internet applications] 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 of product marketing for Nielsen NetView.

For the past year, everyone has been talking about how to measure engagement, and it has been interesting watching the scramble to figure it out. While we all are skeptical in our overly-critical industry, this is at least a step forward to abandon the page view crutch. Optimizing sites to page views tends to give permission for publishers to make users jump through click-hoops to get what they are looking for instead of creating a more efficient (and therefore better) user experience.

Hot topics still in debate include the impact from tabbed browsing, comparing sites like Google that optimize to relevancy verses a site like MySpace, applications like AIM 'boosting" site rankings, and any changes in media buying to focus on quality instead of CPM-driven quantity.

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