NEWS: New Metrics for Social Media

A Shift to Engagement. 12:37am Wednesday, Aug 29 Published by Dave Morin, Facebook

As we indicated earlier, today we are introducing new guidelines that will change how applications are ranked in the application directory. Currently, the focus is on total number of users, but going forward it will be based on user engagement. This is an important step in the evolution of Facebook Platform which will help drive the growth and distribution of applications that focus on user engagement and utility. With a change this foundational to Facebook Platform's measurement, we want to make sure that you completely understand how we will be measuring engagement.

We define engagement as the number of users who touch your application every day (measured from midnight to midnight each day). These touch points are:

• Canvas Page Views
• Link Clicks in FBML
• Mock-Ajax Form Submission
• Click-to-Play Flash

The number of engaged users is calculated by putting all of these touch points together. We display this as the number of "Daily Active Users." Next to it we also show what percentage that is of the application's total number of users.

This change is part of our commitment to making Facebook Platform better for both developers and users. And, we hope that through this change, you continue to focus on creating engaging applications which add maximum utility to a Facebook user's everyday life.

What is Adonomics?

Adonomics™, formerly Appaholic, is your source for Facebook analytics. By providing a stock-market-style analysis of the Facebook platform we enable developers and investors to track application growth, activity, and valuation.

Apparently Facebook is thinking about Web 2.0 measurement too. A few days ago Facebook posted this blog entry. http://judah.webanalyticsdemystified.com/2007/09/web-analytics-facebook-applications-fbml-engagement.html

ANALYSIS: The State of Ad Network Transparency

Though there are several shades of definition, ad network transparency is a network's disclosure of the sites it represents.

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Ad Network Claims

Pose the transparency question to an ad network now and you're almost certain to get an affirmative answer -- with a few exceptions. Probe a little further, however, and you'll see not all their answers are the same.

Some networks, like Interclick, and contextual networks, like Google's Content Network, Google's content network, AdBrite, and Quigo, take an absolute stance on transparency. Others, like Tribal Fusion, Tacoda, and Collective Media, emphasize the quality content of their network and assert transparency, but there seem to be some gray areas. These networks may conceal a small number of publishers, only disclose their list of sites upon request, or provide limited reporting. Still others, such as Burst Media, offer both. Burst Media's Burst Direct is a blind network, while the Burst Network is transparent.

... (blog)

(Ed: also lacking transparency on targeting method, auction policies, fraud control.)