Yahoo! New Zealand has welcomed the introduction of a new hybrid analysis tool by Nielsen, saying that it gives media companies a more accurate, comparative and holistic representation of consumers' online habits.

The launch today of the Nielsen Online Ratings system for the New Zealand market marks a significant evolution in the measurement of online properties. It combines panel data, which measures at-home online usage, and existing tagged data, which measures workplace and mobile usage and provides the measurement of people, instead of browsers. This will enable media buyers to compare online figures to those of traditional media for the first time.

"The introduction of this hybrid measurement methodology provides a more robust metric for online and will help to standardise audience measurement across all media for marketers, media planners and buyers and publishers," says Yahoo! New Zealand General Manager, Laura Maxwell-Hansen.

"It is essential that the industry's standards of measurement keep pace with the constantly changing media landscape and this methodology is a move in the right direction," she says.

Under the previous measurement system New Zealand's online audience totalled 15.6 million Unique Browsers. In contrast, Nielsen Online Ratings reports provide figures for a more realistic 3.3 million Unique Audience users.

Nielsen Online Ratings figures indicate that Yahoo! New Zealand reaches more than one in two online Kiwis.