Announcing: The Compete Attention 200™
Written by TJ Mahony (contact - e-mail) -- February 5th, 2007 | Recommend ThisMore and more, our clients and readers have asked us to develop a better metric for measuring the performance of their web channels and planning their online media investments. Although unique visitors and page views are critical pieces of the puzzle that is the web – these metrics often fail to accurately measure engagement on sites using technologies such as online video and AJAX. Unfortunately, defining a universal “engagement metric” is like finding the holy grail – it’s elusive, controversial and many will die in an attempt to take ownership of it. So while we all are trying to crack the code on how to best measure engagement, Compete has created an important sister metric – Attention.
We are excited to announce the creation of the Attention 200™, the two hundred sites that yield the largest share of our attention on the web. The Attention Index is based on the amount of time U.S. internet users spend across the top one million websites. The Compete Attention 200™ represents the best of the best each month.
Attention is an incredibly powerful way to plan and measure the web because it is finite and we manage it selfishly. We grant our attention to people, activities and websites that merit receiving our most precious resource – our time.
Because it is grounded in consumers, tough to game and technology-agnostic, we feel it’s appropriate to begin incorporating Attention as a standard metric when analyzing the web. As such, we’ll be introducing additional views and Attention metrics into our SnapShot tool next month. As always, we welcome your ideas and feedback!
Did you like that post? You'll love these.
Done reading? subscribe: To get an automatic feed of all future posts subscribe here, or to receive them via email enter your email address in the box in the right column.
Link to This Post:
Posted under: Attention, Compete.com Updates |
Trackback Link | Permalink | 
Get the 
February 5th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
A meme begins: Compete announces the Attention 200 - Top Websites by time spent
I’ve been arguing that the old idea of pageviews is dead, and needs to be replaced a metric more akin to television: Attention. Namely, how long are people actually spending on your site. That led to a follow-up piece by Boston-based Compete, which ca…
February 5th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
This is very impressive and a great stat to have. When will you release more data for smaller websites, like my tiny blog?
Engagement and Attention (as you define, as time spent on a website) are two different measurement attributes.
Engagement factors in interest, interaction, willingness to tell others, and a bunch of others stuff that will be difficult if not impossible to measure.
Looking at both attention, engagement, and a bunch of other attributes will help us to tell ‘the story’ of what’s going on.
This is a step forward in our industry, thanks.
February 5th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
I have been following this blog since the Netflix vs. Blockbuster analysis came out. I realize similar data is available elsewhere, but it’s very powerful to see it published publicly. I hope everyone short on Netflix takes a look at their Attention Rank (#42) compares it to Blockbuster (#129). Who are you shorting now?
February 6th, 2007 at 12:32 am
This is valuable info - pageviews, unique visitors, and length of time are all vital factors - especially since AJAX is gaining popularity
February 6th, 2007 at 9:17 am
I would like to see the list long than the first 200.
February 6th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Dave: We agree. Our intention is to allow you to obtain the Attention Rank for any website. We are building enhancements for SnapShot that will allow you to conduct this analysis independently. As you can imagine a list longer than 200 is not visually appealing.
It appears Seth Godin has picked up on the Attention Index and is arguing that it is another flawed metric. Seth’s position is, “Any website that attempts to improve time spent on every page (or pageviews for that matter) is just wasting time.” While Seth is right, he is missing the point. People don’t choose to spend time on bad websites. If people are frustrated and can’t find something worth their time they will simply leave - and thus stop spending time/granting their attention.
Seth hits on a good point though… We can not rely on a single metric. There are cases where spending time on a site could be considered a negative metric. Search for instance. A good Search solution will find you the best result, immediately, and get you off the site.
We have introduced Attention as a new piece of the puzzle and will continue to pursue new ways of measuring engagement. Enjoy.
February 7th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
I would have thought that websites with longer average visits per user would be ranked higher and those with shorter average visits per user would be ranked lower. This is not the case. For example, Match.com’s average user spends 13:32 minutes on their site (ranked #31), PlentyOfFish’s average user spends 15:44 minutes (ranked #73) and Manhunt.net’s users spend 33:08 minutes though the site is ranked down at #131. Should these websites not be ranked in the reverse order?
February 8th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Its a ranking of Visitors * time spent per month, not average session length.
I think this ranking is great, certainly more valuable then anything hitwise, comscore or others put out. I would really like to see compete come out with some of the things quantcast has, namely a questimate of visitors per day.
February 9th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
I don’t see how this can be relevent considereing the fact that there is entire Chinese internet that is not included into these metrics. And they surely get as big of a number of page views as some of the biggest sites on this list.
November 19th, 2007 at 4:32 am
complimentary right ringtones
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Advance Cash Fast Loan Payday
November 23rd, 2007 at 8:14 am
america application bank card credit bank card credit orchard
Note that america bank card credit bank card credit orchard
December 4th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
fack
January 7th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
free metro pcs phone ringtones
Always much music ringtones cricket phone ringtones
January 8th, 2008 at 3:43 am
advance cash net payday usa
Well card credit pal pay plus pay day loan cash advance
January 10th, 2008 at 11:38 am
=”http://www.xrum.977mb.com”>new year foto
January 24th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
download free cricket ringtones
Any kind of blackberry download free ringtones inheritance cash advance
January 25th, 2008 at 10:00 am
tlcharger un casino gratuit
Only casino franais supermarch casino
January 30th, 2008 at 10:49 am
des rgles du poker
As 0 advance card cash credit cash advance detroit
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:23 am
free ringtones from t mobile
At this point 100 free t mobile ringtones toque a campainha
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:59 am
toque da campainha
Am phone ringtones tmobile free ringtones from t mobile
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:05 am
motorola v710 ringtones
After that info nextel remember ringtones free nextel ringtones i730
February 5th, 2008 at 3:23 am
cell free nextel phone ringtones
These info nextel remember ringtones free ringtones for nokia phone
March 7th, 2008 at 8:27 am
phone ringtones ringtones for cellular one phone ringtones for prepaid phone
Why loan until payday cell free phone ringtones wallpaper
March 8th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
poker 5 cartas
Algun poquer en linea tilt poker
March 11th, 2008 at 11:46 am
migliori bonus casino
Con migliori bonus casino online casino games
March 11th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
roulette gratis spielen
Preview online casino paypal cricket cell phone ringtones
March 28th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Some site require time while others may be just hit and go like for examples (in order)
1. Google (or whatever searches)
2. Stumble
Content based websites like Blogs, Info, tech, etc. need eyeball time which has commercial exploitation potential of its own kind.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:46 pm
aprendre a jouer au poker
April 1st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
software video poker
April 1st, 2008 at 10:49 pm
poker pc game
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:47 am
comment jouer au poker
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:45 am
casino en ligne arnaque
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:52 am
roulette strategie
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:45 am
poker no on line
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:49 am
video poker casino
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:15 am
giochi di poker on line
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:48 am
www jeux de casino
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
poker gratis juegos de poker gratis poker online gratis
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
texas holdem fr
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
roulette gioca
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
bonus code party poker poker on line bonus
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
baccarat online spielen
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
i casino online
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
download gioco poker
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:25 pm
poker multijoueur en ligne
April 8th, 2008 at 5:57 am
gioco carte poker
Sometimes gioco pc casino uk online credit card application
April 8th, 2008 at 11:12 am
gioco poker in italiano
Breathe 7 card stud in linea promociones casino
April 8th, 2008 at 11:37 am
casino on net de
Yet sistemi roulette juegos de polly poker
April 8th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
download free samsung ringtones
They poker en ligne france fast cash advance payday loan
May 1st, 2008 at 3:17 am
texas holdem gratis online
Turn roulette on line codes bonus casino 770
May 1st, 2008 at 12:14 pm
jugar video poker internet
Here are juegos de poker en español bollywood download mp3 ringtones
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:41 am
gratis roulette spiele
Never casino tropez bonus code juego strep poker
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:05 am
online poker startguthaben
They poker spiel gratis download 7 card stud high
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
accept card credit online payment
Ironically télécharger un casino gratuites fast cash advance payday loan
May 4th, 2008 at 8:09 am
roulette lernen
Do poker texas hold mobile casino games
May 5th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
chase credit card home page
Fill telecharger poker en ligne seven card stud online
May 6th, 2008 at 2:37 am
spielregeln von poker
Let’’s begin omaha high low poker online casino sports gambling