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June 23, 2008 9:00 PM PDT

Google plans new Internet measurement tool

by Steven Musil
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Google is expected to unveil on Tuesday a tool that measures Internet use to help advertisers identify the best places to buy ads that will reach their target audiences, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The measurement tool, which will be offered free to advertisers and their agencies, will compete with services offered by established leaders Nielsen and ComScore. While those services base their estimations on selective surveys or customer panels, the newspaper said, Google's results will be based on data collected from Web servers, providing a deeper and broader picture of Internet behavior. By giving away the new tool, Google could attract more advertising business.

The announcement follows one last week about Google Trends' new service, which lets people type in specific domains and compare basic traffic information about any .com site using nothing more than organic user searches. Included are daily traffic numbers in users (sent from Google search), where the users are coming from, and related sites that were either searched for or visited in that same session.

After news of the planned tool hit the Web on Monday, ComScore shares fell $1.69, or 6.1 percent, to $26 after-hours trading. Nielsen is a privately owned company.

Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. Before joining CNET News in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers. E-mail Steven.
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by bloobble June 23, 2008 10:59 PM PDT
Google needs to reinforce its presence in ads and make it suitable for PC, phones and TV now.
Tell me what you think about this article "Google Union or the virtual communism of the digital age?" on http://blog.bloobble.com/2008/06/google-union/
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by benjaminstraight June 24, 2008 5:06 AM PDT
I guess it is all about the target audience...
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by davidtanth June 24, 2008 6:34 AM PDT
sounds good!
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by Tony McCune June 24, 2008 7:13 AM PDT
At least they are moving forward. I just got a notice from Yahoo that they want to charge me again for doing nothing. http://tmccune.blogspot.com/2008/06/why-yahoo-cant-sell-search.html
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