• Forbes, Thursday, July 12, 2007 12 PM

Nielsen/NetRatings' decision to deal a deathblow to the page view is receiving a mixed response from online advertising experts. Most agree that in a post-Ajax (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) world, innovation with respect to measurement is key to progress, but as James Kiernan, vice president of digital media and innovation at MediaVest USA says, "Just to take away that metric, which media buyers have been relying on, is surprising" and perhaps a little premature.

Kiernan's concerns were echoed by IAB General Manager Sheryl Draizen, who said, "I don't think we've done enough work yet to come up with what is the replacement for the page view.

Earlier this week, Nielsen announced that it was dumping the page view as its de facto measurement of Web site usage in favor of time spent at a Web site. Scott Ross, the company's director of product development, said time spent has become the "best engagement metric" in the wake of Web 2.0 technologies like Ajax, which can deliver photos, maps, email, video and other content without requiring users go to a new page. Portals like Yahoo and AOL, for example, are particularly Ajax-heavy. Ross added that online gaming is another sector that was never well-served by the page view.

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