NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> Cookies and unique visitors
ONLINE-ADS>> Cookies and unique visitors
Tom Hespos (thespos_at_k2design.com)
Wed, 14 May 1997 09:48:40 -0400
The new versions of Netscape and IE (and their various desktop integration
gizmos) are going to come to users with the option of whether to let sites
set cookies. This is nothing new - current versions allow you to switch
this on and off. Here's the catch: The default setting will reject
cookies, whereas in the past, the default has been to accept.
My gut feeling is that the vast majority of users are not going to
reconfigure their browsers to accept cookies. It simply won't occur to
them. IMHO, the whole cookie system of tracking unique visitors was flawed
from the start. Previous threads have talked about dynamic IP addressing
and proxy servers (like AOL), the manual clearing of cookie files, etc.
Obviously, the system is flawed.
So what's to be done? I had a meeting with the folks from IMGIS the other
day. They plan to cross-correlate data provided by a user's ISP with the
mammoth MIT database in order to, among other things, track unique
visitors. Personally, I thought the whole idea runs against the grain of
the "Net Culture," and will probably be seen as an invasion of privacy by
many users who are signed up with ISPs. The IMGIS system is flawed as
well, in my opinion. They weren't able to come up with an adequate
explanation for what they were going to do about the huge group of users
who don't access the net through an ISP, but instead surf through corporate
networks and such. That's a pretty big chunk of people to simply eliminate
from the equation.
Has anyone out there heard of any other techniques for tracking unique
visits or unique ad impressions? Please share.
-Tom Hespos
K2 Design
http://www.k2design.com
http://members.aol.com/~THespos
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