IFABC WWW Standards
The IFABC Web Standards Committee approved the following standards on February 2, 2001. Richard Foan - MD, ABC ELECTRONIC (UK and Ireland), Chairperson of the Committee, reinforced the value of agreed global metrics. He also confirmed that the IFABC Web Standards Committee is committed to constantly reviewing these standards to take account of the changing nature of the World Wide Web itself.

Hits -- Are misleading and do not appear as a standard measure. 

BASIC MEASUREMENTS
(please also refer to other criteria below) 

IMPRESSION METRICS:

PAGE IMPRESSION (which is the minimum currency) - A file, or a combination of files, sent to a USER as a result of that USER's request being received by the server.

AUTOMATED PAGE IMPRESSION - A PAGE IMPRESSION sent to a valid USER resulting from an automatic process.

CHAT IMPRESSION - A file, or combination of files, sent to a valid USER while the USER is involved in an interactive Chat session, i.e., a PAGE IMPRESSION generated by a Chat URL. Chat URLs show the input of one or more concurrent USERs, visible to each other, updated frequently, so as to enable a text based conversation.

STREAM IMPRESSION - The start of a media file stream sent to a valid USER as a result of that USER'S request being received by the server.

INTERACTIVE IMPRESSION - An interactive media file, or a combination of files, sent to a valid USER as a result of the USER'S request being received by the server.

WAP IMPRESSION - A WML file, or a combination of WML files, sent to a valid USER as a result of that USER'S request being received by the server.

INTERACTIVE TV IMPRESSION - A file, or a combination of files, sent to a valid USER as a result of that USER's request being received by the server.



USER METRICS:

UNIQUE HOST - The total number of unique IP addresses.

UNIQUE USER/ BROWSER- A unique and valid identifier. Sites may use (i) IP + User - Agent, (ii) Cookie and/ or (iii) Registration ID.

This metric does NOT measure a person. Instead, it is a measure of a device through which a person interacts with a website or network, in common with all measurement software.

REPEAT UNIQUE USERS - The total number of UNIQUE USERS who make more than one VISIT. This metric should be expressed as a percentage of the UNIQUE USERS total.

SINGLE UNIQUE USERS - The total number of UNIQUE USERS making only a single VISIT. This metric should be expressed as a percentage of the UNIQUE USER total.

UNIQUE CHAT USER - The total number of UNIQUE USERS who make one or more CHAT IMPRESSIONS.

The counting of unique WAP and iTV Users is currently not possible, since there is no common standard for the logging of USER identities (SIM cards or set-top boxes) in either of these technologies.

VISIT, SESSION AND DURATION METRICS:

VISIT - A series of one or more PAGE IMPRESSIONS, served to a valid USER, which ends when there is a gap of 30 minutes or more between successive PAGE IMPRESSIONS for that USER.

SESSION - A series of PAGE IMPRESSIONS served in an unbroken sequence from within the site to the same USER.

VISIT DURATION - The total time in seconds for all VISITS of two or more PAGE IMPRESSIONS, divided by the total number of VISITS of two or more PAGE IMPRESSIONS.

UNIQUE USER DURATION - The total time in seconds for all VISITS of two or more PAGE IMPRESSIONS, divided by the total number of UNIQUE USERS making such VISITS.

CHAT DURATION - The total elapsed time in seconds between the first and last time stamp recorded for each valid USER'S CHAT IMPRESSIONS. 

STREAM DURATION - The elapsed time in seconds between the first and last recorded file transmission for each stream sent to a valid USER.

INTERACTIVE DURATION - The total elapsed time in seconds between the serving of an interactive file and any subsequent files to a valid USER. NB: if no record of a subsequent file can be determined then the duration is deemed to be zero.

OTHER CONTENT DELIVERY METRICS:

SMS MESSAGE - A file or combination of files sent to a valid USER'S SMS-enabled device by the server.

UNIQUE SMS USER - The total number of unique device ID's recorded in the server log file(s) for the SMS MESSAGES sent.

ADVERTISEMENT METRICS 

AD IMPRESSION - A file or combination of files sent to a valid Ad User as an individual advertisement as a result of that Ad User's request being received by the server. A valid Ad impression may only be counted when an ad counter receives and responds to an HTTP request for a tracking asset from a client. The count must happen after the initiation of retrival of the underlying page content. Examples of a tracking asset typically include a pixel tag, a 302 redirect, or the ad content itself.
SERVER SIDE INSERTION
The WAP server requests a file from the Ad server after receiving a request for a WML file from a USER. A WAP AD IMPRESSION occurs when the Ad server returns the relevant file. 
DIRECT AD SERVING
The WAP AD IMPRESSION occurs if the Ad server successfully serves or redirects to an Ad file when the USER'S gateway requests a WML file. 
INTERACTIVE TV AD IMPRESSION - A file or a combination of files sent to a valid USER as an individual advertisement as a result of that USER'S request being received by the server.

AD CLICK - An AD IMPRESSION clicked on by a valid USER. 

WAP AD CLICK - A WAP AD IMPRESSION clicked on by a valid USER.

INTERACTIVE TV AD CLICK - An INTERACTIVE TV AD IMPRESSION clicked on by a valid USER.

OTHER CRITERIA 

INTERNAL ACTIVITY - May only be included where the Audit Bureau has excluded development traffic from the data. 

AUTOMATED SEARCH ENGINE - Generated traffic will be excluded, as defined on a centralised list of Automated Search Engines updated at least monthly. 

PERSONAL ROBOT - Generated traffic may be excluded. 

FRAMES - Nonrequested panels within frames are excluded from certified activity. 

SPLASH PAGES - These pages should be excluded from certified traffic, as they are not requested. 

SERVER PUSH - SERVER PUSH delivered traffic does not count as it is not requested. Client Pull traffic where the browser, but not the USER requests the pages should be reflected in the audit process, i.e., will be the auditors decision to include or exclude. 

AUDIT PERIOD - AUDIT PERIOD to be at the discretion of the audit bureaux as determined by the local market, as is the subject of continuous reporting. 

CERTIFICATE CONTENT - The following will appear on all certificates: 

Top Level URL 
Definitions (as above) 
Audit Opinion 
Time Frame (period) covered by the certificate 
Page Impressions 
Description of Site Content 
A Breakdown between Registered and Non-Registered traffic for sites declaring registration. To be claimed, a registrant must be contactable by the Auditor. 

ADDITIONS

Additional metrics approved by the IFABC, and requiring statement on the
website, are as follows:

AJAX IMPRESSION - A file, or combination of files, containing interactiveAJAX content, sent to a valid User as a result of that User's request being received
by the server.

SEARCH - The first Page Impression sent to a valid User as a result of that
User's search request being received by the server.

REFERRAL IN - A Page Impression representing an arrival at the site by a valid User
from another identifiable site.

CLICK - The activation of a hypertext link by a valid User.

SEARCH CLICK - A Click originating from a set of Search results.

CLICKOUT -  A Click to an external (non-native) destination.

CLICK VISIT - A series of one or more Clicks, served to one valid User, which ends
when that User has not made a Click for a 30-minute period.

REQUESTED DOWNLOAD - A request for a non-HTML file executable offline.

AUTOMATED REQUESTED DOWNLOAD - A request for a non-HTML file executable offline as a result of an automated process.

COMPLETED DOWNLOAD - A completed request for a non-HTML file executable offline, shown by the number of bytes transferred being at least 95% of the stated size of the file.

AUTOMATED COMPLETED DOWNLOAD - A completed request for a non-HTML file executable offline, shown by the number of bytes transferred being at least 95% of the stated size of the file, as a result of an automated process.

REQUESTED PODCAST - A Requested Audio or Video Download made by a valid User following receipt of an automated notification of availability. 

COMPLETED PODCAST - A Completed Audio or Video Download made by a valid User following receipt of an automated notification of availability. 

UNIQUE REQUESTED PODCAST USER - Any valid Unique User who has made a Requested Podcast.

UNIQUE COMPLETED PODCAST USER - Any valid Unique User who has made a Completed Podcast.

PODCAST SUBSCRIBER - A valid Unique User (measured by Cookie) that has requested a notification of podcast availability from the source site.

RSS REFERRAL IN - The first Page Impression served to a valid User as a result of that
User's click on a link in an RSS feed.

UNIQUE RSS REFERRAL IN USER - A valid Unique User who has made an RSS Referral In.

UNIQUE RSS USER - A valid Unique User (measured by Cookie) that has requested an RSS feed from the source site.

SUBSITED TRAFFIC - Any Page Impression served for a site within a separate browser window (typically a pop-under) automatically generated by another site as a
result of a request by a valid User for the content of the other site.