Nielsen/NetRatings made changes to the way it ranks sites, shifting from rating by number of page views to rating by amount of time spent on a page. A lot of the online response to this announcement has dealt with how this move will really hurt Google, because most Google users do not actually spend that much time on the search engine itself. However, here's a contrarian view of the situation.
Too many people get caught up in the ratings game, and don't focus on the true measures of success. Satisfying the customer should always be the first goal in any business and once you are on your way to achieving that, the ratings will come your way.
Google isn't ranked at the top spot in the Nielsen/NetRatings ratings, and there is absolutely no reason why the site should care. Google is successful for one reason; because it brings the best (i.e. most accurate/relevant) search results to its end users and displays them in an easy to use and uncluttered interface. As long as they can provide a higher value proposition for the users, their rank doesn't really matter.
We have discussed Compete's Attention Metrics before and think that with new web technologies that continue to make page views irrelevant, ranking based on attention (i.e. time spent on a site) does hold a lot of merit, but doesn't necessarily apply to all kinds of sites.
While this new metric will definitely help some sites, like YouTube, it will have to force other sites to change their business models if they want to adapt. Myspace, for example, has always tried to play to the 'old' system by making their users visit a new page for every change they make to their profiles, and it will be interesting to see what steps they take to encourage users to spend more time on the site (could this be a reason for MyspaceTV?).
Too many people get caught up in the ratings game, and don't focus on the true measures of success. Satisfying the customer should always be the first goal in any business and once you are on your way to achieving that, the ratings will come your way.
Google isn't ranked at the top spot in the Nielsen/NetRatings ratings, and there is absolutely no reason why the site should care. Google is successful for one reason; because it brings the best (i.e. most accurate/relevant) search results to its end users and displays them in an easy to use and uncluttered interface. As long as they can provide a higher value proposition for the users, their rank doesn't really matter.
We have discussed Compete's Attention Metrics before and think that with new web technologies that continue to make page views irrelevant, ranking based on attention (i.e. time spent on a site) does hold a lot of merit, but doesn't necessarily apply to all kinds of sites.
While this new metric will definitely help some sites, like YouTube, it will have to force other sites to change their business models if they want to adapt. Myspace, for example, has always tried to play to the 'old' system by making their users visit a new page for every change they make to their profiles, and it will be interesting to see what steps they take to encourage users to spend more time on the site (could this be a reason for MyspaceTV?).
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