But in the advertising biz, when I hear that similar refrain when referring to measuring online audiences, it makes me feel like I’m driving on icy roads with bald tires and no chains. The Web is the most highly measurable medium we’ve ever used, but the lack of clarity in measuring it is setting the stage for the largest research boondoggle ever.

Nielsen Research and comScore are both heading the charge, having announced their latest hybrid offerings (not talking about vehicles here) in a desperate move to improve their methodology on a very slippery Web road. Since there are no standards in the industry yet, it’s a free-for-all between traditional research companies and array of newcomers using all sorts of methods to report and compile data for advertisers to mull over as they cut loose more of their ad budgets in a digital direction. It seems like the numbers don’t really matter to advertisers, as long as they have them.

This blog was inspired by Lucas Graves’ piece Traffic Jam reported recently in Columbia Journalism Review. It is a very thought-provoking, thorough article on the subject and when he asks “how business gets done amid such uncertainty” I wonder that myself. For my money, I’m big on actual site analytics, despite the naysayers and those who claim the measured traffic is mostly non-human!