Industry Issues

Ad Impression Measurement

The IAB Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines, into which JICWEBS provided input, now constitute a global standard for counting online ad impressions, against which ABC ELECTRONIC has already audited successfully. The standard provides industry transparency to the systems that measure ads. The guidelines have the support of major online publishers, ad-server technologies worldwide (see list) and major associations in Europe, the U.S. and beyond. The IAB's article is here and the standard is available here.

AJAX content

The introduction of AJAX technology poses a new set of challenges for web measurement. Interactions between client and server do not necessarily represent the serving of entire pages, or take place when a User has clicked. JICWEBS is actively monitoring these issues with the support of the ITG, the Internet Technical Group that evaluates how the measurement requirements of new media can be dealt with in a practical and achievable manner.

Subsiting

Subsiting, or traffic served for a site within a separate browser window (typically a pop-under) that has automatically been generated by another site as a result of a request by a valid User for the content of the other site, poses a range of issues for the site opened in the subsited window. Page Impressions, Unique Users and Visits are produced without conscious effort by human Users. JICWEBS has decided that this traffic is invalid, and should be removed from counts; an audit can be a useful tool in detecting and removing this.

Clicks

The issue of click fraud is now a high-profile one within the Internet industry. Pattern analysis carried out in Search Engine Optimisation audits are one way of gaining confidence that the click traffic generated is comparable and human. To address these issues, the IAB has started to work with organisations such as JICWEBS to develop agreed definitions and a global set of Click Measurement Guidelines

Downloads and Podcasts

In response to industry demand, JICWEBS has agreed standards for measurement of downloads and podcast content. See the Jargon Buster for more information.

Caching and tagging

The caching of website content by third parties such as ISPs, search engines, proxy or ‘edge' servers and local disk drives can have an adverse impact on the number of records logged by a site's server(s), and hence on what can be certified as the site's traffic. It is, however, possible to prevent the caching of a site's content by time-expiring elements of it. This will result in a consequent increase in the load or demand placed on the sites own server(s), which in turn can impact on the delivery time of pages, and therefore on the User's browsing experience. Hence, sites need to consider the advantages and disadvantages carefully.

A method which may reduce the impact of caching upon a site's traffic analysis is to insert page tags into the source code of each page – two examples of tags being Java applets or non-cacheable pixels. The tags then generate the records that can be used as the source data for the audit.

ABC ELECTRONIC can audit data containing information written using either of these methods, so long as:

• a consistent audit plan can be established;
• at least the minimum required information is captured;
• the site agrees to meet any consequent cost implications.

Audits based on tagging require the auditor to substantiate the integrity of such tagging methods and of the subsequently collected data.

Streaming, Interactive and Wireless (Mobile) Content

JICWEBS, ABC ELECTRONIC and the IFABC have now developed metrics for the measurement of interactive TV, podcasting, wireless technology, streams and interactive content. See the Global Standards page or the interactive Jargon Buster for more details.

Measurement using cookies

Sites are increasingly using cookies to measure reach and interactivity. The IAB has launched a site, www.allaboutcookies.org, which gives a detailed explanation of how cookies work, why they exist, common misconceptions about them and what they can do to help the user experience.

For more information, or to notify JICWEBS of anything you feel could be added to this page, contact info@jicwebs.org .