Subject: Re: ad measurement press release From: "Eric Meyer" Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 19:41:42 -0500
How the Web Was Won
Subject: Re: ad measurement press release From: "Eric Meyer" Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 19:41:42 -0500
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> measurement metric products and services for Web advertisers.

Know what it is? Read the release at the site. It's a Java applet
that runs an endless counting loop and reports the total loops (or,
perhaps, time server readings taken during the loops) back to the
service bureau whenever the applet summoned.

What's wrong with this? For one, it won't work at all on 
Java-ignoring browsers. Ooops, there goes about 37% of your 
impressions. 

The loops will vary with client processor speed and, possibly, data
transfer rates. If time servers are used, you could easily miss a
time server update due to a lost packet. Or you could get
non-sequential packet returns to the service bureau. Ooops, there
goes the display time they promise to accurately gauge.

Even if they do get time numbers, they won't gauge the time the
banner spends on the screen, only the time from the start of one
page load to the start of the next -- or, more specifially, from the  
finish of the Java code's load to the first time that the report back
does not occur. 

Cached pages redisplayed -- something it promises to log -- won't be 
logged if the user is off-line. 

"Identifies the IP address of the surfer with optional name lookup"
-- Wow! An httpd environment variable linked to Trumpet's Dig. 

"Tracks mouse movement through an advertisement, giving an
indication of whether or not the surfer looks at the banner." Do you 
point your mouse at everything you look at? I sure don't. Sometimes, 
I move my mouse AWAY from things I'm trying to look at.
 
In short, folks, this is another appeal to the insecurity of media 
buyers who don't know what the heck they're doing. And yet another 
way for someone else to try to take a slice of the ad pie away from 
the content provider.

A tightly crafted CGI script that summons and logs an ad gif, all on 
the same site, and logs all the relevant environment variables (while 
giving a clicktrough-logging URL as the href) will do just as well.

In fact, it may do better.
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