According to a new report from comScore, about 31 percent of U.S. Internet users cleared their cookies during the month. This figure, if correct, could lead to site visitor counts to be off by as much as 150%.

While comScore probably can’t be considered an unbiased source - they offer a browser-based approach to tracking user behavior - it’s clear that random cookies are becoming less and less useful as a tool for identifying unique users.

“There is a common perception that third-party cookie deletion rates should be significantly higher than first-party cookie deletion rates,” said comScore CEO Dr. Magid Abraham.  “These findings suggest that selective cookie management is not prevalent, a fact that comScore confirmed via a survey, with only 4 percent of Internet users indicating that they delete third-party but not first-party cookies.”

Some will use comScore’s numbers as a reason to slam Web analytics, or as justification for arguring that Web ad prices are inflated. comScore’s numbers aren’t entirely surprising, though, and serve as a reminder to make sure you’re measuring the right things. An example of this is Google’s AdSense, which tracks views, but charges you based on click-through actions.

Tags: statistics, trends

The Lewin Group’s Elisabeth McLaury Lewin recently talked with the Denver Post’s Steven Rosen about the trend among art museums - and fans of fine art - to produce art podcasts, or artcasts:

“It’s neat to see museums - even low-budget museums - do high-tech things,” said Elisabeth McLaury Lewin, publisher of PodcastingNews.com. “And it may drive new participation in the fine arts as the traditional audience is aging and dying.”

“It seems in the near future people will have an opportunity to interact with a podcast, just like people can interact with blogs,” said Lewin, of PodcastingNews.com. “And podcasters don’t necessarily have to bow to a curator’s view. They can be irreverent.”

The article appeared in the July, 4, 2006 Denver Post.

Tags: art, Denver, museum, podcast, podcasting, trends

While we were at South by Southwest (a new media conference) this year, we had a chance to talk to Dan Fost of the San Franscisco Gate.

Apparently, Fost doesn’t completely buy the whole Web 2.0 meme:

I sure drank a lot of Kool-Aid 2.0 at South by Southwest last week. I don’t know what was in the stuff, but I’m catching some of the excitement that’s coursing through the Internet again.

The whole Web 2.0 thing, though, is asking for ridicule. Even most of the companies that fit in the Web 2.0 category aren’t crazy about the phrase (perhaps because it invites the moniker Bubble 2.0). But at least it’s a handy rubric.

It makes me realize how tribal the chatter is at these tech conferences. Linguists would probably love them, if they could understand them.

James Lewin, who runs Web publications on podcasting and other topics with his wife, Elisabeth, in Des Moines, Iowa, heard enough of the blather at South by Southwest to string together a typically meaningless pitch: “We’re monetizing the long tail globally and impactfully in the Web 2.0 space with tags.”

To come up with your own pitch, try this Web site from blogger Andrew Wooldridge and you’ll be streaming RSS-based widgets via Shockwave in no time.

For the record, we are monitizing the long tail globally and impactfully in the Web 2.0 space, with tags.

via SFGate

Tags: conferences, fun, internet, jargon, podcasting, web 2.0