AJAX. No not the cleanser. The newest web tool. Ajax is changing the face of websites and now web measurement tools as well and making life much easier for users. Ajax allows sites to be faster, more interactive and provide a more personalized experience for users.
Ajax is an acronym “Asynchronous JavaScript and XML”. That means that the loading is independent of (not synchronized with) the regular page loading process we are all familiar with. It is written in the JavaScript language, and retrieves data using XML. It can be used on a variety of systems, architectures and browsers. So, what does this all mean for companies and users?
Page Views Are Now An Almost Meaningless Statistic To Marketers…..
When a website user requests a change or information, it used to be that the entire web page was sent to the server, then back to reload. This caused a time delay and increased the need for users to go to multiple pages. The Ajax program exchanges small amounts of data, only the data needed, with the server so that the entire page does not need to be reloaded.
With new products like Ajax, it is getting easier for users to conduct faster inquiries and transactions on the web. It is also impacting the way websites are measured. Advertisers, affiliate marketers and corporate internal departments used to look at page views as a key indicator of web success (in tandem with other measures). Page views are losing relevancy, since, with Ajax, users often do not need to go to another page for their information. In fact, Nielsen/Net Ratings, one of the leading measurement services, has removed page views from their criteria for ranking top sites. Instead they are using total minutes spent and total sessions.
It is exciting that we are getting these great new products that improve the user experience. Deming always said you can’t manage what you can’t measure, however for today’s marketing digerati, the yardstick changes size frequently.
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About Me
- Laurie Aines
- Laurie has been a marketing and ecommerce professional for more than 20 years with large corporations in a variety of industries including manufacturing, banking, distribution and retail. Her marketing signature style is in accomplishing marketing "firsts" in her jobs. At various previous employers, she was the first to design and implement email campaigns, integrated marketing advertising campaigns, marketing operational redesigns, and online measurement of marketing campaigns.
Link In to l.aines@sbcglobal.net