GOOGLE is developing technology to try to appease critics who complain that its proposed acquisition of DoubleClick will lead to an erosion of online privacy, according to its chief executive Eric Schmidt.
Mr Schmidt also promised changes in the internet company's policies, saying Google would do whatever was necessary to quell a rising tide of complaints about lack of privacy that began with news of its planned $US3.1 billion ($3.7 billion) acquisition 10 days ago. "At the end of the day, people will be happy," Mr Schmidt said.
"That's because they have to be" or Google would lose both users and advertisers and its business would be at risk, he said.
Fears have been stoked by the potential for Google to build up a detailed picture of someone's behaviour by combining its records of web searches with the information from DoubleClick's "cookies", the software it places on users' machines to track sites they visit.
As the company that "serves", or delivers, the majority of banner ads seen by web users, DoubleClick's reach within its market is on a par with that of Google in the search business.
Mr Schmidt said Google was working on a way of handling cookies that would reduce concerns about the practice.
The technology has long been controversial, because many internet users do not realise their surfing habits are tracked.
Google has bowed to those concerns by not using cookies, though it has said it would change its policy after the DoubleClick acquisition.
"We have technology in that area that can make it much better," Mr Schmidt said, though he refused to give details of the technique before the company's discussions with regulators.
Besides privacy groups, the DoubleClick deal has also stirred unease among advertisers and other online media companies over the competitive advantage Google would gain from the vast amount of information it would have about its businesses.
Last week Mr Schmidt said that Google would consider arrangements to deal with those fears, such as keeping apart data about advertisers and media owners contained in Google and DoubleClick's systems.
While stoking fears about loss of privacy, greater use of personal data collected online could have benefits, from enhancing the personalisation of services to helping fight terrorism, he said.
"These are the conflicts of our age," he said.
"We're trying to find the right balance."
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Cookie Crunching May Be Pumping Up Web Traffic
Internet cookies might not be as reliable an indicator of distinct Web site visitors as previously thought, according to a Monday report from Internet research company comScore.
A growing number of Internet users have taken to erasing their computer's cookies, which are unique identifiers inserted on a user's computer that reveal what Web sites someone has visited. While this might not seem like a catastrophic event, the deletion of these cookies could lead to inflated traffic reports for a particular Web site, according to the report.
Each time a user visits a Web site for the first time that Web site deposits a virtual checkmark, or cookie, onto the user's computer. That cookie prevents the Web site from cataloging repeat visits from the same user, thereby creating a more accurate count of new visitors to a particular online venue. If a user's cookies have been erased, however, that person's computer is registered as a new user when they visit a Web site, even if they have been there hundreds of times before.
ComScore evaluated a first-party Web site and a third party ad server that each receives more than 100 million hits each month.
Researchers found that 31 percent of U.S. Internet users erased their first-party cookies over the course of the month. As a result, Web sites could be inflating their web traffic by as much as 150 percent, according to comScore.
"These 'serial resetters' have the potential to wildly inflate a site's internal unique visitor tally, because just one set of 'eyeballs' at the site may be counted as 10 or more unique visitors over the course of a month," said Magid Abraham, president and chief executive of comScore, in a statement. "The result is a highly inflated estimate of unique visitors for sites that rely on cookies to count their audience."
Report authors found similar totals on the third-party ad server, with approximately 27 percent of users clearing their cookies at least once a month.
Many people think third-party cookies are deleted more often than first-party cookies because "many PC users reset or delete their cookies using security protection programs," Abraham said. "But these findings suggest that selective cookie management is not prevalent."
Comscore officials were not immediately available for comment.
Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International
A growing number of Internet users have taken to erasing their computer's cookies, which are unique identifiers inserted on a user's computer that reveal what Web sites someone has visited. While this might not seem like a catastrophic event, the deletion of these cookies could lead to inflated traffic reports for a particular Web site, according to the report.
Each time a user visits a Web site for the first time that Web site deposits a virtual checkmark, or cookie, onto the user's computer. That cookie prevents the Web site from cataloging repeat visits from the same user, thereby creating a more accurate count of new visitors to a particular online venue. If a user's cookies have been erased, however, that person's computer is registered as a new user when they visit a Web site, even if they have been there hundreds of times before.
ComScore evaluated a first-party Web site and a third party ad server that each receives more than 100 million hits each month.
Researchers found that 31 percent of U.S. Internet users erased their first-party cookies over the course of the month. As a result, Web sites could be inflating their web traffic by as much as 150 percent, according to comScore.
"These 'serial resetters' have the potential to wildly inflate a site's internal unique visitor tally, because just one set of 'eyeballs' at the site may be counted as 10 or more unique visitors over the course of a month," said Magid Abraham, president and chief executive of comScore, in a statement. "The result is a highly inflated estimate of unique visitors for sites that rely on cookies to count their audience."
Report authors found similar totals on the third-party ad server, with approximately 27 percent of users clearing their cookies at least once a month.
Many people think third-party cookies are deleted more often than first-party cookies because "many PC users reset or delete their cookies using security protection programs," Abraham said. "But these findings suggest that selective cookie management is not prevalent."
Comscore officials were not immediately available for comment.
Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International
Web counting tools 'need change'
The way web audiences are measured could be ripe for an overhaul, according to two reports out this week.
Measurements based on page-views and cookies (small text files which track net use) could be affected by changing user behaviour, the studies warn.
Net measurement firm comScore found cookies used to track user behaviour could be being over-counted.
A separate study argues that page-view measurements are outdated due to an explosion in audio and video content.
Serial resetters
There are several methods for measuring net audiences which provide critical data for advertisers.
Cookies - small text files inserted on a user's computers by a web server and unique to that computer's browser - can be used for authenticating, tracking and maintaining information on users.
In comScore's study, an analysis of 400,000 home PCs in the US found that a hardcore minority of web users are clearing their cookies from their computers on a regular basis.
This causes servers to deposit new cookies which in turn could lead to an over-estimate of unique users to a particular website.
It found that 7% of computers accounted for 35% of all cookies, which extrapolated could mean the size of a site's audience is being overstated by as much as 150%, said comScore.
"It is clear that a certain segment of internet users clears its cookies very frequently. These 'serial resetters' have the potential to wildly inflate a site's internal unique visitor tally, because just one set of 'eyeballs' at the site may be counted as 10 or more unique visitors over the course of a month," explained comScore president Dr Magid Abraham.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, comScore offers a very different approach to audience measurement - using the panel-based system favoured by the TV and radio industries which relies on using a representative sample of net users to gauge behaviour.
Measuring time
Its findings have led some advertisers and site operators to question current methodology.
"Cookie-based data are still a valuable resource, but this important study certainly underscores the fact that an accurate multi-dimensional picture of consumer behaviours must be compiled from multiple sources," said Jeff Marshall, senior vice president of Digital Managing Director at media agency Starcom USA.
A separate study by net measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings questions how relevant it is to look at page views as a gauge of user behaviour in the light of new technologies and the increase in audio and video content.
The post Web 2.0 world is best represented by measuring time spent on particular websites, argues analyst Alex Burmaster.
Page-views metrics discriminate against sites with audio and video content and Nielsen/NetRatings argues that metrics based on the time spent on a website could be a more accurate method.
"As the technology that publishers use to deliver content to the user moves away from static, reloaded pages to more streamlined content such as online videos, the page view is becoming a less relevant gauge of where might be the best place to advertise online," said Mr Burmaster.
"Time spent is probably the best single indicator of user engagement although it can be a misleading metric for search and comparison sites that aim to help users find what they're looking for as quickly and efficiently as possible," he added..
While the biggest sites in the UK by page-view are Google and Facebook, measurement by the time spent on a site puts eBay and online game RuneScape at the top.
Britons spent almost 28 million hours on eBay during February, while visitors to RuneScape clocked up an average of 6 hours and 32 minutes per visit, according to Nielsen.
Measurements based on page-views and cookies (small text files which track net use) could be affected by changing user behaviour, the studies warn.
Net measurement firm comScore found cookies used to track user behaviour could be being over-counted.
A separate study argues that page-view measurements are outdated due to an explosion in audio and video content.
Serial resetters
There are several methods for measuring net audiences which provide critical data for advertisers.
Cookies - small text files inserted on a user's computers by a web server and unique to that computer's browser - can be used for authenticating, tracking and maintaining information on users.
In comScore's study, an analysis of 400,000 home PCs in the US found that a hardcore minority of web users are clearing their cookies from their computers on a regular basis.
This causes servers to deposit new cookies which in turn could lead to an over-estimate of unique users to a particular website.
It found that 7% of computers accounted for 35% of all cookies, which extrapolated could mean the size of a site's audience is being overstated by as much as 150%, said comScore.
"It is clear that a certain segment of internet users clears its cookies very frequently. These 'serial resetters' have the potential to wildly inflate a site's internal unique visitor tally, because just one set of 'eyeballs' at the site may be counted as 10 or more unique visitors over the course of a month," explained comScore president Dr Magid Abraham.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, comScore offers a very different approach to audience measurement - using the panel-based system favoured by the TV and radio industries which relies on using a representative sample of net users to gauge behaviour.
Measuring time
Its findings have led some advertisers and site operators to question current methodology.
"Cookie-based data are still a valuable resource, but this important study certainly underscores the fact that an accurate multi-dimensional picture of consumer behaviours must be compiled from multiple sources," said Jeff Marshall, senior vice president of Digital Managing Director at media agency Starcom USA.
A separate study by net measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings questions how relevant it is to look at page views as a gauge of user behaviour in the light of new technologies and the increase in audio and video content.
The post Web 2.0 world is best represented by measuring time spent on particular websites, argues analyst Alex Burmaster.
Page-views metrics discriminate against sites with audio and video content and Nielsen/NetRatings argues that metrics based on the time spent on a website could be a more accurate method.
"As the technology that publishers use to deliver content to the user moves away from static, reloaded pages to more streamlined content such as online videos, the page view is becoming a less relevant gauge of where might be the best place to advertise online," said Mr Burmaster.
"Time spent is probably the best single indicator of user engagement although it can be a misleading metric for search and comparison sites that aim to help users find what they're looking for as quickly and efficiently as possible," he added..
While the biggest sites in the UK by page-view are Google and Facebook, measurement by the time spent on a site puts eBay and online game RuneScape at the top.
Britons spent almost 28 million hours on eBay during February, while visitors to RuneScape clocked up an average of 6 hours and 32 minutes per visit, according to Nielsen.
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