I know I haven't posted in a while, but I just had a new addition to the family and I have been spending a lot of time with them and less time online. With that said, I have been reading and learning about AJAX lately and deviation it's impact on Web Analytics with some colleagues. This is my take. AJAX doesn't function any differently than a Flash movie does, it just gives a developer/designer the ability to modify the page without a page refresh. So, is AJAX going to change the face of analytics? No, Flash already has. Without knowing it we are moving away from the traditional concept of a page view and using "page views" to measure activity or events. Where I see this effecting the industry is mainly in KPIs e.g. Page Views Per Visit, Page View Per User or any other KPI that utilizes Page Views (there are many more). I also see this mucking up the water as far a billing is concerned because the majority of vendors bill by CPM (of Page Views).
In short all AJAX has done is bring this issue into the public eye, a problem that has existed for years. I would like to see companies either use a different method of calculating the events or exclude that traffic from the web analytics interface, because it may be causing mis information........
CD
Whisperado's "I'm Not the Road": rootsy, countrified album with a lot of
humor and a little pathos
-
"I'm Not the Road" is the second album from NYC-based indie band
Whisperado. I've been listening to it pretty steadily since it came out a
couple weeks ago...
22 minutes ago
Posts
2 comments:
Chris,
Congratulations on the new addition.
I am not sure I would sound "Taps" for page views just yet. Clearly, Flash and Ajax are growing, but the majority of the sites are still document/html based and will be for the forseeable future. (I am thinking about SEO and ease of content creation, maintenance.) I see Flash/Ajax growing as applications on a site more than as the site interface itself.
From an analytics perspective, I may want to understand what a visitor is doing within the application to optimize it or segment users, but much of my analysis will be content just to know they used the application (or did not).
Ultimately, I am still trying to get the visitor to complete some success event, and many of those may not require the Flash/Ajax application. (For me KPIs that rely on page views are less valuable than those related to an event. If my sites were based on an advertising model, pageviews would obviously be more important.)
You are right that pageviews are less meaningful if your site is set up to be a Flash/Ajax experience. Certainly, there are a large number of sites where this makes sense, but I doubt this makes sense for most sites.
On the cost/billing, Omniture will charge for additional server calls outside of page views. I suspect the other ASPs do it that way too. So if I wanted to analyze a Flash application and a user's actions, my costs would go up linearly with the data collected.
Enough of my thoughts on a Friday afternoon. Have a great weekend. Keep up the good work.
Jim,
First off, thank you second I havent killed off page views just yet. The post was more aroung the "Buzz" about AJAX and the few articles about how it will change the face of advertising/web analytics. I just wanted to shed some light on the fact that this has been going on for years and actually the method is not new (Flash Usage). I also think that the industry desperatly needs standards. This will help eliminate companies boasting how successful a campaign/project/program was with the proof being inaccurate/incorrect metrics....
Chris
Post a Comment