In preparing a Newsflash article about eBay metrics, I calculated the percent change in Page Views and Unique Audience for January, February and March 2008, year-over-year, from data provided by Nielsen Online.

Page Views

January: Down 10.54 percent year over year

February: Down 10.69 percent year over year

March: Down 12.82 percent year over year

Unique Audience

January: Down 9.57 percent year over year

February: Down 4.75 percent year over year

March: Down 6.31 percent year over year

The decline in page views has to be of concern to eBay - an almost 13 percent drop in page views in March from the previous year.

I was curious if the numbers might hint at any boycott effect. Looking at the numbers month-to-month, it shows a 13.21 percent drop in page views from January 2008 to February, and a 6.48 percent increase from February to March. There was also a 10.85 percent drop in time spent per person from January 2008 to February. It's always tricky looking at month-to-month numbers, as seasonal effects can cause swings.

The raw monthly data from January 2007 through March 2008 - including time spent on site per person - is included in the Newsflash article, which will be published later this week.