Web analytics, web metrics, and how to use them to track and improve conversions

I got an interesting comment from David (who did not leave his last name or email address) on my post regarding Quantcast eating Comscore which was inspired by Steve Rubel - who said that ComScore was not focusing on niche sites enough (I agree), but I disagreed about Quantcast eating Comscore for lunch anytime soon (and I had Breakfast with Quantcast a couple of months ago in NYC .... but no, I did not have Quantcast for breakfast - now will Quantcast have ComScore for lunch anytime soon).

I wanted to respond to the post right away but decided to sleep on it and also do some research to see if David's claims are in any way verifiable.

:....The reason is that  (QuantCast) so far they've flown under the radar of Nielsen Net ratings who holds several patents that Quantcast is most likely violating. The patents are around the use of javascript as a means to capture web analytics. They'll need someone with deep pockets to either fight a patent lawsuit or to pay a very large licensing fee to Nielsen.

Nielsen has been very active in suing companies in the web analytics space for the last 2 yrs, especially those using javascript tags to capture analytics. The list of folks they have filed infringement lawsuits include CoreMetrics, Webside Story (Hitbox), Omniture, Visual Sciences, Unica, SageMetrics, etc...... Scary considering most of these companies weren't actually large direct competitors, Quantcast would be if it took off."

Personally, I find that hard to believe because almost every web analytics platform now uses JavaScript tags to collect data - but then, so do a lot of applications - and I'm having difficulty understanding how someone can patent something so widely used. 

At any rate - it seems to me that, if there there are patents involved here - it has more do with what's being collected and how the data is being assembled.  It seems to me any lawsuits would be used more as a diversion tactic to slow competitors down while Nielsen comes up with their own products (if all of this is true - which I don't personally know).

I used Google Patent Search to see what I could pull up on "Nielsen Netratings" Patents and found 3 entries, with 2 search results showing.  I'm not a patent lawyer and I don't have the patience to read the  entire patent in each case - and I'm sure, even if I did, the patents are not written to be all that easy to understand - but having said that .....I don't see anything in these patents that would interfere with what I understand Quantcast is doing ".

...XX X XX
US Pat. 7099859 - Filed Jan 20, 2000 - International Business Machines Corporation
... PUBLICATIONS "Nielsen/netratings Search Engine Ratings" published on the Word Wide Web at URL: http://www.searchenginewatch.com/re- ...

Systems and methods for automated audio transcription, translation, and transfer with text display software for manipulating the text
US Pat. 6820055 - Filed Apr 26, 2001 - Speche Communications
In June of 1999, Nielsen/ netratings reported that there were a total of 63.4 million active Internet users in the United States, and 105.4 million total ...

And I'm not clear these two patents are really filed by Nielsen - even though Nielsen/Netratings are mentioned in the abstract copy.

However, I did find more when I searched on "Javascript Nielsen" and found one particular patent - Method and system for the collection of cookies and other information from a panel - US Pat. 6529952 - Filed Apr 2, 1999 - Nielsen Media Research, Inc .

Just by scanning Patent 6529952 - it's very broad - could be interpreted to say that anyone, any company that attempts to rate sites using cookie data might infringe the patent - specifically..

".......1. A system comprising panel members, web sites, and a central facility interconnected in a network, wherein

the central facility is arranged to collect cookie information and access information regarding usage of the web sites by the panel members, and wherein the collected cookie information and access information is stored by each web site and transmitted from each web site to the central facility, and wherein each web site stores a corresponding central facility sub-server, and wherein the central facility stores a web page, and wherein the web page contains a URL of each web site, and wherein each panel member is arranged to access the web page and to respond to the URLs of the web page by transmitting to the web sites any panel member cookies which the panel member has stored and which correspond to the URLs, and wherein the web sites are arranged to receive client cookies, to compare the client cookies to the panel member cookies, and to transmit to the central facility access information corresponding to the panel, member cookies that match the client cookies.

Looks to me like Nielson could sue most of the web analytics industry if they wanted to using this patent but it would be frivolous lawsuits, in my opinion - something like outlawing the use of roads - because one builder patented road building.   That what it looks like to me...but not being a patent lawyer - I don't know all that's involved here.

To finish up this post (and I hope it does spark a debate in the web analytics community as to the actuality of David's claim) - what I proposed for Google Analytics and Quantcast was this:

1. Google Analytics acquires Quantcast and merges it's rating system and collection process to the Web Analytics data it already collects using the UrchinTracker script.
2. Google Analytics then offers Demographic information on all the sites running Google Analytics (probably up to a million sites by now...or more ....)
3. Google Analytics then creates industry segments based on the information (which would compete with what Coremetrics does, I believe).

That's my idea. David seems to think that Google would bail out Quantcast from all the lawsuits from Nielson .... again, I don't know.  I'd like to hear what others have to say about this.