Every few months Google updates the algorithm it uses to rank websites in its index. Some of these updates are more significant than others, but because of Google's market leading position these updates can be extremely significant to many online businesses.
Internet Marketers assign names to these updates much the same way the weather service names hurricanes. Last October it was Jagger, before that we had the infamous Florida Update in late 2003, and Austin in early 2004.
Each update is designed to improve search results by either doing a better job of identifying high-quality content on the Internet, or by doing a better job of suppressing low-quality content.
Currently, the Advertising Research Foundation has an initiative called MI4. Its task is to create a cross channel measurement of advertising effectiveness that can foster more accountability and facilitate multi channel marketing measurement. They have decided on the concept of engagement. It is a noble endeavor, and one that is much needed in our new, highly fragmented marketing world. But I fear there may be a fundamental chasm that one metric will be unable to bridge.
Joe Plummer, ARF's Chief Research Office, offered the group's first draft of a working definition, "Engagement is turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context."