NYTimes Article on Web Stats: Is Web Measurement Technology Stymied by Human Beings Just Being Human?

Don't miss this NYTimes article in today's paper that nicely sums up the on-going Web visitor counting controversy (at least from the public's view). Makes me wonder about the reputation of public relations and of public relations measurement: Here we are congratulating ourselves on being able to measure relationships, and being able to measure trust and transparency and various other esoteric things, but we can't nail down something simple like measurement for Web visits.

What's the problem here? It's not lack of data, there's piles of that. And you'd think that there would be plenty of motivation, what with all the money hanging in the balance. Is it as basic as a battle for business dominance; human beings just being human? "My number's better than your's!"

Maybe the real measurement problem lies someplace other than in the Web traffic reports--like between the ears of the people who use them. Geeze, this relationship measurement stuff might come in handy. (And, on a completely different note, how about those Red Sox, eh?) --Bill Paarlberg