Nielsen has launched an online audience measurement panel in the US, comprised of over 230,000 panelists and 30,000 websites — the largest and most representative online audience measurement panel in existence, according to Nielsen.

The panel is over eight times larger than Nielsen's previous sample, increasing the company's measurement of websites from 3000 to over 30,000. It better represents teens, Hispanics and mobile-phone-only households.

It is also "significantly" more representative of the internet population as a whole, Nielsen said.

"There is incredible demand for more accurate, reliable and high-quality Web audience measurement. Nielsen's new panel is a huge leap forward in measurement to address that need,” stated CEO John Burbank of Nielsen’s online division. "One of the most exciting things about this new methodology is by including Nielsen’s TV/Internet convergence panel for online audience reporting, we are laying the foundation for better future cross-platform measurement."

Internet audience measurement data reflecting the new panel is available with the July 11 "data of record" release of Nielsen's Netview, as well as VideoCensus, search and online retail measurement offerings.