NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> IAB Standards Document for Web Metrics
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> IAB Standards Document for Web Metrics
Glenn Fleishman (glenn_at_popco.com)
Wed, 17 Sep 1997 17:07:33 -0700
rhoy_at_tenagra.com writes
>The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) released its standards document for
>measuring ad deliveries this week.
> METRICS AND METHODOLOGY
> http://www.iab.net/advertise/metricsource.html
A great document. No contact information on how to provide feedback to the
committee, however! So here's some minor criticism:
"Domain: (1st and 2nd level) Every browser on the Internet has an
associated IP address which uniquely identifies it to the rest of the
network. In most cases, there are mnemonic names associated with these
IP addresses called domain names. The "1st and 2nd level domain" names
refer to the most general, and second most general elements of the
domain name (1st level: .com, .mil, .edu -- and 2nd level: prodigy, ibm,
netcom)."
I know they don't mean this, but this says that all browsers have unique IP
addresses. This isn't exactly right. 1) all machines directly connected to
the Internet, whether temporarily or permanent, have a unique IP number.
That number is not attached to the browser, of course, and most dial-up
servers assign a number dynamically (usually different) each time a given
user dials up and these numbers are constantly reused for new sessions. 2)
browsers behind firewalls or proxy servers aren't identified uniquely by IP.
It should say: "Every time a browser connects with a Web server, the Web
identifies an IP address which either uniquely identifies the browser at
that moment in time or identifies the IP address of the proxy server or
firewall server through which the request is being made."
"Unresolved IP addresses: Those IP addresses that do not identify their
1st or 2nd level domain. Unresolved IP addresses shall be aggregated and
reported as such and should not classified in any other category other
than their own."
Actually, it's a simple matter to query the InterNIC database by network
number (for instance, 206.193.43.6 has a network number of 206.193.43) and
get the registration name for that range. This can't be done real-time, but
could be done either through later analysis or through a database similar
to what Interse (Microsoft Site Server?) was doing with domain names and
locations. I only bring this up as when I was running commercial sites, I
saw 25% or more as unresolved IP addresses. That's unacceptable, since most
of the time there's some additional information in the InterNIC databases
that can be applied. (Sometimes it's way too high level, like identifying
the network as an address managed by MCI; this doesn't mean they're an MCI
dial-up customer, but are connected through a network that MCI provides
service to.)
Otherwise, great stuff.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Glenn Fleishman, unsolicited pundit. see my mug at http://www.glenns.org
editor-in-chief, NetBITS, a weekly electronic journal on things Internet
writer, perl hacker, Adobe Magazine columnist/editor . fax 206.285.0308
currently working on the book "Real World Scanning & Halftones," 2nd ed.
conference chair, Web Advertising '98 http://www.thunderlizard.com/webad
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