Web site popularity pundit Relevant Knowledge Inc has updated its Web Report product with new Java tools for media analysis and planning. The company collects web ratings on an ongoing basis from a panel of volunteer households, using its own clickstream- tracking software to upload the data. That sample base is growing second by second, says Jeff Levy, CEO and co-founder of Relevant Knowledge. With Web Report 1.0 we felt we were giving our customers access to the last hundred feet of that mountain. Customers wanting more detailed information had to put in a custom search request to the company. For Relevant Knowledge, these requests were profitable but time- consuming. Accordingly, Levy plans to release more of the mountain with version 2.0. Soon, agencies and advertisers should be able to access the Relevant Knowledge database from any Java- enabled browser. Once there, they can examine stats and plan their next web ad campaign. The Web Report service already has about 85 customers, including WhoWhere, IBM, Intel, Netscape, Infoseek and CNN. We have most of the major sites and most of the major advertisers, says Levy immodestly. However, he won’t disclose the price point for Web Report, saying it depends on the size of the site or the level of billings of the agency. We aim to fit our customers’ budget, is as much as he will divulge. Relevant Knowledge seemed to come from nowhere in January to establish itself as the regularly mentioned player it is today. Where next? Three major initiatives are under way, says Levy.
Initiative one involves vertical market breakdowns, and the first of these, covering business and financial sites, hit desktops last week (CI No 3,431). Initiative two provides agencies and advertisers with a means of tracking ad banners across campaigns. We’re spearheading a movement to standardize the names of the ad banners on different web sites, Levy explains. At the moment a single ad can have a hundred different names depending on the whims of the webmasters. Levy says: We’re working with advertisers because they have the money to pressure the sites to conform. Initiative three is a broader and deeper international presence. Look for a major partnership about to be announced in Australia and New Zealand, Levy warns. His ultimate ambition, he says, is: World wide data for the world wide web.
