Roy Morgan Adds Fuel to Australian Metrics Debate

Analyst firm Roy Morgan Research has joined the
sudden wave of metrics firms trying to elbow their way to become the
most
credible source for information about the Australian Internet-using
public.

The company has released the first results of its Internet Monitor
service,
including an estimate of the Australian Net-using population, and a
listing
of the top 10 Web properties viewed by them. The firm estimated that 48
per
cent of Australians had ever accessed the Internet, and 38 per cent did
so
at least every month. The figures were based on interviews with 60,000
Australians aged 14 and over.

After a long period where www.consult was the only real
credible
Internet research firm in Australia, a number of competitors have
rushed
their products to market in the last month, including Media Metrix, ACNielsen eRatings.com, and IMR Worldwide.


The sudden influx
of
metrics data has become controversial, however, with Yahoo! Australia & NZ complaining
that
recently released rankings wrongly discounted its audience.

The Roy Morgan figures put Yahoo’s network of sites at number two
behind ninemsn, which follows the
generally
accepted industry wisdom. Rounding out the top ten in the Morgan
rankings
are AOL, Lycos, Telstra Big Pond, AltaVista, OzEmail, Excite, Fairfax
and
Looksmart.


Notable omissions from this list include: Commonwealth Securities, an online
stock broking provider which is usually found in the top three
elsewhere;
White Pages, which sits at
the
top of the pioneering Australian site ranking site Where did we go?; and the
public
sector Australian Broadcasting
Commission
.

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