There's bravado in disclosure

NetRatings, Inc. just announced it plans to move forward with the Media Rating Council (MRC) Accreditation process for measuring Internet audiences, per a recent Nielsen press release.

With the auditing process underway, Nielsen plans on beginning a full accreditation process for its patented metering and page-tagging processes.

The desktop meter in particular is core to the Nielsen/NetRatings NetView Internet audience measurement service. It collects site visits, time spent and pages viewed by visitors. And NetRatings' patented page-tagging component drives SiteCensus and VideoCensus, in addition to other Web analytics products proffered by the company.

While an audit is rarely smiled upon, NetRatings expressed optimism about the decision. "We believe this is a logical next step for NetRatings, because the MRC process is the only audit that certifies to clients and to the industry that we have fully disclosed our methodology and that we are executing against that methodology," said EVP Manish Bhatia.

This decision comes shortly after the IAB sent an open letter to both Nielsen and comScore, requesting that they submit to a third-party audit of their measurement processes.