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(Mis)Tracking Web Traffic

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the of-course-everyone-has-a-traffic-toolbar dept.

PreacherTom writes "Online advertising is considered by many to be the most dependably trackable ad medium of all time, with revenues expected to grow to $16 billion in this year alone. However, companies are finding that competing methods of measuring web traffic are giving contradictory results. Since advertising revenues are based directly on the traffic developed, this news could mean serious trouble. For example, valuations for startups such as Facebook and YouTube appear to be doubling every few months, but those numbers are based on traffic figures that could be misleading."

6 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. What?!? by vancondo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do my eye's decieve me? You used the words 'misleading' and 'advertising' in the same writeup. Surely those words don't belong together!

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    1. Re:What?!? by Nos. · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, misleading and advertising are very common... the surprise here is that its the advertisers that are being mislead. Its like a Soviet Russia thing.

  2. Maybe we should let Deibold tabulate this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just a thought :).

  3. So let me get this right.... by pandrijeczko · · Score: 3, Funny
    ...web site traffic monitoring can give inaccurate results meaning that a few greedy rich people will potentially lose a whole heap of money, go into shock and die from massive coronaries...

    So what's there to fix?

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    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
  4. Re:General Traffic Figures are useless. by pandrijeczko · · Score: 3, Funny
    'm not sure it matters. I advertise my own businesses on the web, and I accept advertising on my sites. I've sold numerous ads just for my site for repeat customers who realize I give them more than they pay out of supporting my site. I support some sites repeatedly because those sites make me a profit for what I invest. If you're a big company, you gauge your profits NOT on what others say but what you actually witness through numbers paid and profits made. If you don't make a profit, the traffic reports mean NOTHING. If you make MORE profits than you were expecting, the traffic reports mean NOTHING.

    Whoa! Slow down there, cowpoke! Ya lost me frum dat big ol' word "matters". Ya ought'a remember most of us here simple Slashdot townsfolk be simple code farmers a-tinkering with dem der machines till da cows come home. Why, we even has us a good hearty laugh at dem words "Microsoft Works".

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    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
  5. Re:So who is it, anyway? by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Alright, I admit it... once... just once... I punched the monkey.

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