Nielsen Vastly Expands Online Measurement Panel

The Nielsen Company claims it now has the ability to garner audience data for 30,000 Web sites, up from the 3,000 or so it has recently been able to track. Such a sizable increase in panel size should go a long way in answering critics, who have complained in recent years that panel-based metrics firms like Nielsen and comScore do just fine in offering data on the audiences of top 200-plus sites -- but lack a large enough sample to provide insight into the Internet's long tail. Nielsen officials are touting that capability, as well as the new larger panel's ability to yield better measurement of specific demographics such as Hispanics and teens, as well as more accurate representations of households with multiple computers. Plus, Nielsen customers will have access to more sophisticated planning tools, including media staples like reach and frequency analyses, and should be able to receive more actionable cross-platform audience data, according to company executives.