Nielsen//NetRatings, which has built its reputation in Internet audience measurement via consumer panel data, announced Friday that it will introduce a solution that combines that panel data with measurements taken at the Web site using cookies deposited on visitors’ browsers.
The new Data Integration Solution will help address a long-standing debate on the discrepancy between panel and raw visitor or “census-based” Web information, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Recent research has suggested that users are deleting or blocking cookies at an accelerating rate. Visitors who block or remove their cookies and then return to those sites can look like new visitors.
Using data from Italian Web users for the month of July 2005, Nielsen// NetRatings found that as many as 47% of Web browsers deleted cookies during that month, while another 2% to 4% blocked their placement. That cookie deletion or blocking might have led Web operators to overestimate their audience by as much as 46% in the search engine/ portal category, 43% in the telecom Internet services sector, and 23% in the news and information category, the company reports.
The Nielsen//NetRatings integrated solution will combine data from its NetView online consumer research panel with SiteCensus, a Web-based Web analytics platform that offers operators a view into the practical behavior of their site visitors. NetView offers detailed consumer demographics and behavior for audiences in 11 countries.
The new Data Integration Solution has been successfully deployed in Italy and U.S. clients are currently testing the approach. The solution will be launched into the Australian marketplace in 2006, the company said.
