Traffic Accident: Web Numbers Don't Tally

Since Web sites have been counting traffic, they’ve bitterly complained about their Nielsen or comScore numbers. “We reach twice as many uniques as they say” is a common contention. “Those guys are a joke” is another often-heard diss.

Many grouse that employing data from panels in any way, shape or form in a medium that can track every pixel is backwards. Yet there are major problems with using a site’s own data, according to the third-party researchers — you can double count people who delete their cookies or log on from work and at home, for example.

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