Myth Of Web Metrics

We are often told that the big advantage of web marketing is that it is so easily measurable.

Bullshit.

I have a very simple little blog here. All I want to know is how many people visit it each day. I can't imagine a simpler piece of data to ask for -- no calculations, no processing, no complicated algorithm, just a simple count.

And yet, I cannot get a verifiable number.

If I install a counter I get a count. If I install another counter I get a different count.

I have tried three different counters and they never agree. I have upgraded to the highest level of service, and they still never agree. They are sometimes off by as much as one hundred percent.

If a simple blog that gets a thousand visitors on a really good day can't get accurate information, how in the world are commercial sites which get millions supposed to have any confidence in web metrics?

I can only imagine the bullshit data that is being generated for large web users with sophisticated needs and the waste that is being created by wrong conclusions drawn from this bogus data.