

Why We Should Boycott ComScore - dchest
http://calacanis.com/2010/01/23/why-we-should-boycott-comscore-and-perhaps-why-traders-should-short-their-stock/

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thafman
In the bad old days as a Media Buyer for a large-ish brand I tended to get
amazing results by looking up a site that had paid CommScore and then fining
their direct competitors who had not, and buying spots for 30-50% less for
what was essentially the same inventory. Good times.

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snowbird122
How could you tell who paid and who didn't?

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thafman
I won't (really really shouldn't) go into specifics, but it was pretty darn
easy to tell.

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covercash
TechCrunch just posted a story with the responses from Fred Wilson and
Comcsore's CMO Linda Abraham. Check it out here:
[http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/24/comscore-calcanis-
wilso...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/24/comscore-calcanis-wilson-punch-
face/)

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dchest
I don't take any sides yet, as I don't know much about analytics business, but
the first part of Linda's reply is confusing. She talks about how they measure
people vs cookies, but:

1) when you're comparing websites, does it make any difference if an analytics
system measures "people" (which is impossible to do precisely) vs "cookies" or
unique IPs? In my opinion, the latter is better for comparison, because it's
more precise.

2) she didn't address the following point:

"The only problem was that Comscore's numbers were different than the
SiteMeter traffic that Gawker and Weblogs Inc. were publishing at the time."

What is the reason for the difference between SiteMeter stats (unique IPs and
cookies) and "people" as measured by Comscore?

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Multiplayer
Back in the "old days" you had, in my opinion, even worse issues with Media
Metrix and Nielsen. They were the real gangsters - and it was really
expensive. Comscore was the new kid on the block and tried harder to get good
data out there. I don't recall any extortion from them.

When someone is running a business I think it's a good idea to focus on the
business and not on various crusades. Whenever I see someone behaving like
this I'm glad I'm not an investor with them. Watch what happens with Mahalo -
all these shenanigans and the ceo's focus on angel investing tell me that the
level of his interest in his startup isn't all that great.

Or he's magically talented and can do it all while building a great business.

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dasil003
Calacanis rubs me the wrong a lot of the time, but I disagree with your
assessment. All else being equal, yes, personal crusades are a distraction,
but he's only human. The type of commitment necessary to succeed in a startup
isn't necessarily 80 hours a week with a laser focus. It's hard enough to keep
most people focused for a solid 40 hours a week. And also, it's very easy to
appear totally dedicated but actually be mentally spinning your wheels and not
performing well for a variety of reasons. I mean, you maybe right, but I just
think it's hard to judge by looking at outside indicators like what someone
rants about.

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ecaron
One of their funniest pieces of "buy your way into being adored by the press"
is their reporting on the job search industry -
[http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/1/J...](http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/1/Job_Search_Fastest_Growing).

But looking at Compete.com
([http://siteanalytics.compete.com/careerbuilder.com+monster.c...](http://siteanalytics.compete.com/careerbuilder.com+monster.com/)),
these numbers show they're heavily inflated for those on the list, and ignore
some of the bigger new-comers (like JuJu).

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reidman
Does it strike anyone else as petulant, childish, or vaguely illegal that he's
prodding people to short their stock?

I can never take this guy seriously, even when I want to.

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jasonmcalacanis
it was a sort of a joke... I don't think anyone takes me seriously when it
comes to the stock market--especially after I say I don't own any stocks! :-)

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vaksel
who knows, they are mostly institutionally owned, a single guy at Fidelity
agreeing with you, and their stock can tumble

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axod
quantcast are the only ones who have a directly measured system afaik.

After quantcast I usually trust alexa the most.

Comscore and compete numbers are just random stupidity.

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dnsworks
I think this is the first calacanis note I've read that didn't mention his
Tesla.

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jasonmcalacanis
editing it in now. :-)

