Media Metrix, which issues the
widely-quoted Internet audience measurement statistics, this week expanded
the number of industries it measures to 27 and increased the detail with
which it looks at Web properties.
The company, which has been issuing statistics for Web properties and title
sites within those properties, will now drill down to channels and
sub-channels within those properties. A total of 61 sub-channels will be
measured.
With this system, Media Metrix would, for example, rate Yahoo! Finance against AOL‘s Finance Channel. This means advertisers
can get a much better idea of how much traffic a particular vertical is
getting. Media Metrix obtains its statistics by extrapolating from the
behavior of a panel of Web surfers.
“This is to address the questions our clients had as companies were
acquired, and as the digital universe expands,” said Will Hodgman, chief
marketing officer of Media Metrix and chief executive officer of its AdRelevance division.
AdRelevance also has some new tricks up its sleeve. The company will expand
its online ad tracking system to probe more than 500,000 URLs.