The demise of the page view 29 Dec 2006

It seems like advertisers and media commentators are finally cottoning on to the fact that the page view is dying. Edelman's Steve Rubel explains why:

"Underneath the Internet advertising economy is a key metric that dictates how properties are valued and how online media is bought and sold - the page view. While it's not the only way to measure the health of a site (time spent and unique users are among the others), it's still very popular. Unfortunately, the trusty page view is on life support and I give it four years to live...The page view does not offer a suitable way to measure the next generation of web sites. These sites will be built with Ajax, Flash and other interactive technologies that allow the user to conduct affairs all within a single web page - like Gmail or the Google Reader. This eliminates the need to click from one page to another. The widgetization of the web will only accelerate this."

And Rubel isn't alone in predicting doom for the metric, Buzzmachine's Jeff Jarvis, VC Fred Wilson and business / marketing guru Seth Godin see a similar future.