I read yet another review of some web app for the iPhone that touted the streamlined interface as free from ads. ”See,” said the reviewer, “the site loads quickly and is clean and easy to use because it doesn’t have all the crap as the normal site.”
My question, other than the obvious (“If all that other crap ugly-fies the site, WHY put it there?”), is this: Are these sites included in the hits or session visits used by web sites to show how popular they are to potential advertisers?
Is this a grand loophole in web stat reporting? If a user goes to the mobile version of the site (WAP, iPhone-optimized, or otherwise), does that count as a visit to the site in general? If so, advertisers could get ripped off more and more as these mobile devices become even more popular. The site may be visited BUT the ads are not shown. When the stats are used to set the price to current and potential advertisers, the inflated numbers don’t tell an accurate story. Advertisers think their ads are reaching for more users than they actually are.
I’m sure this has been addressed somewhere, but I haven’t seen anything in my (admittedly limited) research. If you know anything about this, drop me a comment, please.
