![[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]](images/stone-hello.png "Sensei's Library")
"However, this can obscur positional judgment, which is generally accepted to be more quickly done counting territories and prisoners."
Chrisd: I always estimate the score by counting stones+territory+points mostly influenced by one color. If that is bigger or equal to 181 then that color is ahead. Oh well, then there is komi, to worry about, of course. Also the method explained under "Use half counting" at the page Estimating The Score seems very handy online and is based on area scoring. Havn't yet tried that method in practice though.
I find it difficult to estimate the score like this because there are many neutral or almost neutral points during the game. I usually use territory and prisoners for score estimation.
On the other hand, I find the worth of endgame plays to be more easily visualized using area scoring.