The robot accounted for about 30 percent of daily traffic to some sections of the Web site. Over the next couple of weeks, while closely observing the daily ritual of the uninvited electronic robot, the administrator tracked the intrusions of at least two other intelligent agents. Instead of text-based material, these robots were interested in graphics. As Web traffic evolves from wandering Web surfers to automated robots, it becomes increasingly difficult to count the number of eyes that are actually seeing Web content and online ads.
Electronic agents inflate the traffic count.
On the other hand, proxy servers, which hold duplicate copies of Web content, can deflate the count. If the numbers that Web sites use to set advertising rates are off in either direction, it could affect the fortunes of advertisers and publishers, alike. On the other hand, if Web traffic is underreported by the same amount because online services and corporations siphon off visits by copying information to local hard disks, online publishers could lose a half-billion dollars in ad revenue. Although the numbers appear staggering, Evan Neufeld, an analyst at Jupiter, said the real blow to advertisers is a loss of confidence in a new medium billed as the ultimate environment for tracking the habits and interests of consumers. Over time, that will become a huge problem.