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Nielsen//NetRatings plans to bid adieu to page views, a long-time site metric that has been made obsolete by online video and Ajax page technology.

Nielsen Saying No To Page View Metrics

There has to be a better way to acquire an accurate look at a website and the traffic it draws. We discussed Quantcast CEO Konrad Feldman told us his firm's take on the subject. Panels and pixels play the measurement role there.

An AP report discussed Nielsen//NetRatings and its measurement future. They are expected to announce an end to rankings based on page views.

Nielsen's measurements will show the total time spent and sessions for all visitors, in addition to the averages of time spent and sessions per visitor that it presently reports. AP noted this will mean ranking sites by time spent will benefit AOL, and push it ahead of perennial page view leader Yahoo.

Ajax has been a big culprit in the downfall of the page view. Yahoo and other sites program their pages in Ajax to dynamically refresh content on a page, without refreshing the page itself.

That is a boon for viewers, but pure poison to page view metrics. Even though visitors may be viewing just as much content as they usually do, Ajax makes it appear they are not. That has a direct impact on advertising rates.