It seems the disparity mainly stems from the inherent shortfalls of panel based measurement systems to accurately capture what the true site traffic is. If anything, these systems are at best, estimates. Comscore MediaMetrix, in answer to the ongoing debate about the accuracy of panel based measurement methodologies, has announced a new “hybrid” methodology to deal with the issue. To recap, some organizations have reported a wide disparity between web traffic numbers of what Comcore reports and what they get from their internal tracking systems.  It seems the disparity mainly stems from the inherent shortfalls of panel based measurement systems to accurately capture what the true site traffic is. If anything, these systems are at best, estimates.

Comscore’s new methodology now seeks to combine data from panels and more importantly, data captured directly from a clients website, via embedded beacons.  Comscore asserts that this should close the gap between the two methodologies, in effect providing something closer to what an organization sees internally and also, something more acceptable to marketing execs looking to make their case for more advertising dollars.

A couple of observations - I wonder why Comscore does not offer to clients, the option of using exclusively, just the data gathered from their own sites.  After all, from their point of view, it is not far-fetched to say the real issue is the inaccuracy of data from the panel side of the fence - so why muddy the waters?

Something at the back of my mind also keeps telling me that this new methodology is the same as what Web Analytic vendors like Omniture and Google Analytics use for capturing data - what prevents Comscore from providing such a service, with the added benefit of giving a client a competitive view beyond what’s happening on their on site. Let’s see what happens.