Monday, February 12, 2007

Page views, advertising and Web Design

Steve Rubel points to this illuminating article from CBS:

New Tech Puts Online Ad Measures to Test

Experts say the stubborn attachment to page views also may be keeping some sites from improving their usability.

Jakob Nielsen, a Web design expert with Nielsen Norman Group, notes that many news sites force visitors to click multiple times to read longer stories in sections, even though he would much prefer scrolling down a long story and avoiding interruptions.

"Because you are measuring the wrong things, you are driving your project in the wrong direction," Nielsen said. "You are not maximizing what causes value. You are maximizing the things a computer can count easily."


For my part, I think the future of online advertising lies in embeding key words and links in RSS feeds. A whole science will grow up around learning which key words to use in what sort of feeds.

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