TO ADVERTISE OR NOT TO ADVERTISE? THAT IS NIELSEN'S QUESTION.
By Adnews Staff
Is the World Wide Web worth advertising on? This is a question U.S.-based A.C. Nielsen Company is trying to answer with a survey, the results of which will be published in September. Started in mid-August, the telephone survey "will be the first rigorous statistical study" of what kinds of people use the Internet and what they like to do on it, says a report in The New York Times. It will attempt to determine if Internet surfers find advertising useful or even acceptable. The study is sponsored by CommerceNet, a group of companies and institutions that promote doing business on the Internet. Nielsen will also be comparing its telephone survey findings with those of on-line surveys to determine how reliable the latter are. It is doing its own on-line survey on the CommerceNet Web site (http://www.commerce.net). Netscape Communications Corporation, producer of the Netscape Navigator program which is is the world's most popular Web browser, will post a free link to the survey on its home page. The Times report says Commerce Net plans to offer key results from the survey free on its Web site. The complete study will only be available to Commerce Net members or to outsiders who are willing to pay about $5,000(US). Academic researchers will be able to obtain raw data for free.