In Effort to Measure Online Ad Campaigns, the New York Times (free registration required) beats one of my favorite drums: sites supported by online advertising might do better if these ads were not subject to that uniquely unreasonable measurement of success, the "click-through."

"The problem is that the click- through is not really a good measure," said Hairong Li, an assistant professor of advertising at Michigan State University and the editor of the Journal of Interactive Advertising. "People won't click unless they have a real need at that moment," he said. "But even if you do not click, you still see the message. So we've found that branding is really the essence of advertising."