I don't expect Hitwise's data to agree with ComScore's data for the Google Blog Search vs. Technorati debate going on today; you can't get any two packages from the same vendor to agree on numbers - why expect it from Hitwise or Comscore?
For one thing, the methods of collecting data (and the sampling of it, the amount of it) are different (so maybe they're not actually measuring the same exact thing).
"…Metrics company Hitwise writes a sensational blog post showing the dramatic rise of Google Blog Search against competitors Technorati and Sphere. Their data is saying that this week, for the first time, Google Blog search surpassed Technorati in total visits."
I don't know about you - but I don't use Google Blog Search much - and I haven't seen that many referrals coming to Webmetricsguru.com from it (but I do see a bunch from Blogger Search - which might be integrated into Google Blog Search).
"……Comscore tells a much different story, and one that makes little sense given the facts. The most recent Comscore data (November) says Technorati had 3 million page views v. Google Blog Search’s 1 million. But Comscore also shows highly erratic Technorati data over the last twelve months, swinging from a high of 22 million page views in April 2006 to a low of 1 million in December 2005."
What Hitwise says makes a lot of sense - and it's the main reason I'd buy a license to use Hitwise (if I could afford it - it's Cause and Effect).
"…..Google Blog Search began catching up to Technorati in October, when Google placed a link to Blog Search on the Google News home page, causing a 168% surge in market share for Google Blog Search over a two week period (week ending 10/14/06 vs. week ending 10/28/06). Since then, approximately 60% of Google Blog Search's traffic has been coming directly from Google News, compared to less than 1% before the change. Blogger Blog Search has been receiving about the same amount of traffic as Technorati, although it has dropped since Google Blog Search took off. Sphere, another blog search service, is still small, but growing.
At least, this explanation sounds believable - it's probably true. So you do something and it has an effect - and it causes "X" to happen. That's what Web Analytics is supposed to do. Note - it take a really good analyst to make those associations, BTW - to have insight.
