"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics" – Mark Twain
Here at Microsoft, we like to listen. We also like data (and not just so we can ignore it). And whilst work on Gatineau is already quite well advanced, we’re still keen to learn what folks out at the sharp end of web analytics actually want to see in a product like this. So to … Read more
I kind of have an unwritten rule not to include Dilbert cartoons on this blog, partly because it’s such an appallingly hackneyed thing to do, and partly because it will reveal to my readership that I’m not in fact the debonair man-about-town that the pithy content of my blog would have you believe, but a … Read more
I knew that in my haste to get a post out yesterday I’d forget to mention some things: Many congratulations and best wishes to Eric Peterson on his new venture. For reasons which may become apparent in the fullness of time, I had a little advance notice of Eric’s intentions, so I’ve been spending the … Read more
So I’m back at my desk after a hectic E-metrics in San Francisco, and now I have a whole bunch of posts backed up that I need to write, whilst also addressing the three-day work backlog that’s built up in my absence. But here are a few lightning thoughts about this year’s conference – actually … Read more
With a sense of timing that you can draw your own conclusions about, the IAB has sent an open letter to Neilsen//NetRatings and Comscore to ask them to submit to an independent third-party audit of their measurement methods. From the letter: “We in the marketing-media ecosystem have spent too many years trying to clean up the residue … Read more
When I first came across 3D Live Stats my first reaction was to groan at yet another over-wrought method for conveying (I use that term loosely) web analytics data. The conceit here is that your traffic is shown as rays of light emerging from a rotating globe, whilst your search keywords float across the screen. … Read more
Today’s news (so much more interesting than the Google earnings call) is that credit-rating and demographic data provider Experian has bought online competitive data provider Hitwise, for $240m in cash. The rationale for Experian is that Hitwise complements its existing portfolio of marketing services, which mainly lie in the area of data provision for 1:1 marketing … Read more
There’s a lot of chatter on the wires here (ooh, I make it sound so glamorous and newsroom-y – it would be more accurate to say there are a lot of e-mails going back and forth) about Comscore’s press release about cookie deletion. It makes for somewhat alarming reading – according to the report, 31% … Read more
Apologies for the rather slower pace of posts of late, but life has been a little busy here, what with moving house in Seattle, taking a trip to London to attend E-metrics, and succumbing to a nasty cold this week. Hopefully this post, the latest in my ‘mini-series’ on online marketing measurement techniques, will make … Read more
Do you know how online ad serving works? Are you familiar with the difference between a publisher-side ad server and an advertiser (or third-party) ad server? No? Then read this excellent article on the topic by my colleague and ad industry veteran Eric Picard. The article’s actually an updated version of one that he wrote … Read more