• by Masha Geller , July 1, 2002

With all the talk yesterday about L90 buying DoubleClick’s U.S. media operations, the online ad world let another interesting event go rather unnoticed.

I’m talking about the comScore Media Metrix and their announcement that they will be doubling their panel size.

Here are the details. The third-party audience and customer measurement and research firm, which bought Media Metrix’s panel last month for just $1.5 million, yesterday announced the upcoming launch of the second generation of its syndicated Internet audience ratings

In November 2002, comScore Media Metrix will deliver Media Metrix 2.0, hailed as one of the most significant developments in the history of syndicated Internet audience ratings. The service will expand the Media Metrix U.S. sample from 60,000 to more than 120,000 Internet users, while adhering to pure Random Digit Dial (RDD) methodology – media researchers’ preferred sampling framework.

Media Metrix 2.0 will use comScore’s advanced monitoring technology to provide uninterrupted reporting of all previously-measured Internet behavior, while providing expanded coverage of crucial activities such as online buying, transaction behavior, at-work Internet usage and even more detailed use within the AOL proprietary network.

Additionally, Media Metrix 2.0 will feature University Measurement. The 11 million U.S. college and university students online represent another critical audience for marketers, comScore says, and Media Metrix 2.0 will feature a 35,000-member sample to provide exclusive data on this audience, one of the most challenging to monitor.

All this considered, it’s no wonder some experts (namely Rick Bruner) are calling the news comScore’s “victory announcement as winners in this service category of a network approach to online customer/audience research.”