There’s movement in the world of web “audience” measuring that bears reporting only to make a point about trying to turn the web into something it really isn’t.

Firstly, Nielsen has formally dropped the page view as a top line measurement. This has been coming for a long time, so it’s no surprise. Staci Kramer over at PaidContent provides notes that this will shift some sites’ status considerably. AOL, for example, ranked sixth in total page views for May but first in total minutes: 25 billion.

I’ve always had a problem with page views as a top metric given the way various sites have been able to inflate page views, both by poor design and intentional effort. This shift could help provide a more realistic view although you can still game time spent by making it hard to find things. Now how are Nielsen, comScore-and IAB-going to solve the autoplay issue where sites jack up streaming numbers by delivering video whether or not a user wants it?

And while this is taking place, the Interactive Advertising Bureau is working to establish a single standard for measuring web video. David Kaplan, again at PaidContent, writes that sites are doing their own thing to better position themselves with advertisers.

Many TV nets divide their webisodes into four to five streams for a drama and two to three streams for a sitcom. The point is to make it simplify the delivery of the shows and also to insert ads in each break. But that also allows networks to count based on the stream, as opposed to the number of individuals watching what ought to be considered a single webisode. The IAB hopes to nail down a single standard within the next 12 months.

A single standard would seem doable, given the ability to precisely measure the web. However, the IAB will have to nail down many facets in order to arrive at a single standard. That’s evident in a recent report by TubeMogul.com on an experiment they conducted with eight websites.

The company found that the top online video websites differ greatly in how they record video views. Here’s an image from the report:

TubeMogul writes that “this lack of standardization presents complexity to content producers and advertisers in understanding the relative popularity of videos across video sites. To fully realize the potential of advertising models in the online video medium, increased standardization and transparency is required.”

If you can step back far enough and combine these elements, you can clearly see the media business community moving in unison to turn the web into a form of measurable cable TV. This effort benefits the status quo and includes the Telecom industry, headed by our old friend AT&T. The paradigm is an old one. “Content” travels through pipes to destinations, and everybody makes money along the way. I should add that this paradigm necessarily requires that the “packages” flow from their point of origin outward. In this model, the haves continue to have, and isn’t that nice?

“Standards” is a modernist term that’s essential for a modernist culture. The same is true with “measurements,” because the whole culture is based on the rule of logic and science, something I’ve written about many, many times in this space. The problem is that we’ve entered the postmodern era, one that views authority and hierarchy — and their tools — as self-serving.

In all of the above, who is least affected by these organizational efforts? Google, that’s who, because the bulk of its revenue doesn’t come via the measurement paradigm.

This is, again, why I continue to emphasize that the real disruption for media companies isn’t multi-platform distribution systems or new ways of delivering “content.” The problem is the personal media revolution, which is driven by the internet pureplay companies enabling it (led by Google, eBay, and a host of others).

In the weeks and months to come, we’ll hear a ton of publicity about how the telecoms need to “build out the pipes” and how Madison Avenue and media companies are coming to agreement on the money-making process.

What you won’t hear are the giggles coming from the secret chambers of Media 2.0.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 9:37 am and is filed under Postmodernism, Media 2.0, Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.