Nielsen/Netratings added new metrics as best measure of online engagement

Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, announced today that it added both “Total Minutes” and “Total Sessions” metrics to NetView. NetView is its syndicated Internet audience measurement service. While NetView has always reported average time per person and average number of sessions, the new metrics deliver greater perspective on total engagement across sites.
 

“’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 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.

For example, AJAX refreshes content without reloading entire Web pages and streaming provides dynamically changing content within a single page or a media player. While a page view metric under-credits such engagement, the total minutes metric provides a common denominator for user behavior that is independent of site design.

The top 10 Web brands ranked by total minutes in May were led by AOL Media Network, Yahoo!, andMSN/Windows Live.