In the time that it took IMRB to launch its Web Audience Measurement (WAM) system for analyzing usage of the Internet in India - we'd reported about its plans two years ago - much has changed: Comscore appears to have gained acceptance in India, Komli Media launched Vizisense and later introduced a freemium model. Nielsen hasn't yet launched its own audience measurement product, and the space for an authoritative audience measurement system in India is still up for grabs. WAN does a few firsts - it introduces the concept of WRP's, or Web Rating Points, tracks time on site and "exposure", which will be of relevance to display advertisers, and is also able to track instant messenger usage. But, it has its limitations. We spoke at length with Balendu Shrivastava, Group Business Director, IMRB, who has spent over two years on this product. MediaNama: How does WAM Work? Shrivastava: WAM is a true measurement of the Internet audience, and we're using Panel information. Through the panel, we're completely capturing the entire Internet usage that a person does, across browsers. It is not limited to Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome alone, and tracks Internet usage across browsers and across messengers, because we're not embeding a software on the browser. It's an exe file given to a panelist, and he just has to run that file. Every time he starts his computer, we start getting the data from the panelist. Our software is a completely independent entity, present in the network layer,…
