Omniture, Comscore To Develop Comprehensive Web Monitoring Tools
The new system will combine technology from Omniture's Web analytics software, which businesses and organizations use to track hit rates and other metrics on their Web sites, and Comscore's new Media Metrix 360 hybrid audience measurement system. Comscore is best known for its consumer Web site visitor traffic rankings.
Omniture is in the process of being acquired by software giant Adobe Systems for $1.8 billion.
Today online publishers and advertisers rely on two sources for measuring online performance: Web analytics (such as hit rates, shopping cart abandonment rates, and other metrics) and "panel-based audience measurement," the companies said. But those methodologies employ different data collection technologies and even have disparate objectives, they said.
Omniture and Comscore said the automated system they are developing would blend the two methodologies to provide a unified approach to online audience measurement.
"With this relationship, Omniture and ComScore will enable publishers who have rich, highly targeted audience segments to reliably demonstrate their value to advertisers and also help advertisers find these attractive consumer segments," said Josh James, Omniture CEO and co-founder. "The combined offering will provide advertisers and publishers with a common currency to measure the value of online audiences across an ever-increasing number of digital channels."
The companies did not specify a date when the new system would be generally available.
The companies said the alliance opens up the possibility of other joint product initiatives that leverage the detailed site-specific data provided by Omniture's products with Comscore's broader view of Internet user behavior.