comScore submits new online measurement proposal to ABCe
comScore has submitted a proposal for a new UK online measurement currency to ABCe.
The digital measuring company has published an open white paper on the proposal following its recent research, which found that by calculating cookie deletion rates from an online panel and applying the appropriate adjustments to website server data, accurate user metrics can be acquired.
comScore claims that the results represent a “major breakthrough in the reconciliation of panel-based and website server data to create a unified set of numbers for online audience measurement”.
The white paper has been submitted to ABCe for consideration by its Internet Technical Group and JICWEBS, the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards, as an addition to the ongoing discussion to find the best way of developing a new industry-agreed online audience measurement system.
The company’s proposal comes just a week after UKOM appointed Nielsen as its official partner to launch an industry-agreed online audience planning system (APS) in the UK. The UKOM/Nielsen APS, which is due to be unveiled in January 2010, is being designed using a system similar to BARB, RAJAR and NRS.
The two groups’ systems differ because UKOM’s APS will only use a panel to gather data (made up of around 35,000 consumers), while comScore’s new proposal aims to use both panel metrics and ABCe-style server measurement but taking into account cookie deletion rates.
comScore also plans to submit a closed white paper on the methodology used to create these measures using the company’s Media Metrix 360 solution.
comScore’s study on cookie deletion rates revealed that nearly one in four UK internet users cleared their website cookies in a month – or had them cleared by automated software.
As such, using the comScore panel has shown that relying purely upon website server data could exaggerate the size of a site’s audience by as much as 140%.
Mike Read, SVP and managing director at comScore Europe, said: “The limitations of using Web site server data in isolation have long been acknowledged by the industry. Counting cookies provides useful information, but without correction for cookie deletion this methodology can lead to potential overstatement in audience counts and as a consequence has been traditionally unable to arrive at an accurate person-level solution.
“In conjunction with the Audit Bureau of Circulation, we propose to resolve the issue of panel versus site server data once and for all, and arrive at an industry agreed-upon standard for the measurement of unique visitors.”