MrWeb viewing figures still rising rapidly 03/07/00 Viewing figures for pages on MrWeb, the industry's online resource which includes vacancy postings, directories, desk research sources and the DRNO news service, continue to rise quickly. Last week 15,000 pages were viewed, more than 2,000 higher than the previous best and around twice the number viewed in a typical week of January 2000. A slight majority of pages viewed continue to be vacancies, with many individual postings attracting well over a hundred viewers - however other sections such as the MR Home Page listing are also getting big audiences (c.1,000 a month), while the news service is picking up two or three new subscribers every day. In a readership survey conducted on the site at Christmas, more than a third of the 100 respondents were at AD level or above, and the DRNO service attracts mostly clientside research managers, agency ADs and Directors. The service will shortly receive a boost from the arrival of a new researcher, working full time on directory content, site management / development and customer response. Applications for the post (advertised on MrWeb, naturally) have been of a high quality and a choice should be made this week. MrWeb's Director Nick Thomas hopes that taking on the new recruit will give existing staff time to think and innovate, whereas at present much of the day is spent reacting to the flood of contacts. "The service has now been running for 19 months and we have not stopped learning or developing the way it works. We now have enough email coming in from researchers and advertisers each day to keep someone occupied full-time, and it's important that the directories and new initiatives don't stagnate just because we like to respond rapidly to these day-to-day contacts. Having another researcher on board will enable us to spend time on the developing '3 tenners' agencies directory and the desk research grids whilst still turning round vacancy ads in two hours and getting applications flowing for advertisers the morning after they submit details." Thomas also hopes to develop more automated systems for notifying candidates of suitable vacancies and for displaying the ads themselves, using recently acquired ("and currently rather shaky") cgi skills. "Doing things ourselves means that we trust and understand the systems we have in place - but it will be nice to develop some of the obvious new areas of potential that have been nagging at us all year - watch this space..." DRNO will keep you up to date with new directories and features as they are launched. MrWeb home page.