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August 13, 2008

Google Streamlines Analytics Log-In Process (Kinda, Sorta, Not Really)

For a long time, I have been befuddled as to why I must log-in to Google Analytics when I'm already logged into Gmail in the same browser.

Now, Google is claiming they have streamlined the process. If you're signed into your Google account, all you have to do when you arrive at the Analytics page is click on a bright blue button that says "Access Analytics."

This is not truly an improved, streamline process as there is still a page and an action you have to take before accessing your Analytics.

Disagree? Leave me a comment and tell me how it is!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

July 18, 2008

Auto-tagging Adwords and URL Redirects: Please Pass the Gclid

To pass the gclid or not to pass the gclid, that is the question. At least, if you're trying to tag your AdWords URLs in Google Analtyics it is. On the Google Analytics blog, they're talking about using auto-tagging in Adwords in order to facilitate easy viewing of info in Analytics. But problems may arise if you've got some URL redirecting going on.

Basically, auto-tagging inserts a little snippet of code into destination URLs. But if you have several redirects, the snippet could get stripped. That snippet is "gclid." What happens if the gclid gets snipped?

While Google Analytics still records the visit and the subsequent user activity, it doesn't have the information necessary to properly attribute the visit to your Google ad. As a result, some of this traffic will be included in the "direct" category while other visits may show up as "not set". Furthermore, your Adwords Campaigns report in Google Analytics may show cost metrics, but your visits columns may show zeros.

If this is happening to you, you have two options.

Ask your site administrator to configure their servers to pass the glid
Manually tag your Adwords

So how do you figure out if you're passing the gclid? Follow these steps:

Scenario 1 If your destination URL has no query parameters and looks something like this: www.i_will_redirect_you.com/:

1. Paste this URL in your browser's address bar, but before you press Enter, append "?gclid=test" to the end, like this: www.i_will_redirect_you.com/?gclid=test.

2. Now press Enter.

3. If the gclid is present on the final landing page URL, you're golden.

Scenario 2 If your destination URL already has query parameters and looks something like this: www.i_will_redirect_you.com/?param=a¶m2=b:

1. Paste this URL in your browser's address bar and before pressing Enter, append "&gclid=test" to the end, like this: www.i_will_redirect_you.com/?param=a¶m2=b&gclid=test.

(This is why the "?" and the "&" distinction were important to note earlier. It's a matter of URL syntax. Luckily, auto-tagging knows the difference.)

2. Press Enter.

3. If the gclid is still there, you're in good shape, and need only to enable auto-tagging.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 7, 2008

Does Google Analytics Share Data with Google Trends and Ad Planner?

Google is assuring users of its Analytics product that their data is protected. Apparently, the recent announcements of Google Trends for Websites and Google Ad Planner had some web site owners concerned about how much data sharing was going on among the various offerings.

Brett Crosby from the Google Analytics team went to the blog to allay fears:

Google Analytics doesn't share individual, site-level information with Google Trends for Websites or Google Ad Planner. These products gather data from multiple sources, then check the data against anonymous, aggregate, industry benchmarking data within Google Analytics. This helps Google Trends for Websites and Google Ad Planner calibrate category data and correct for under- or over-reporting in certain verticals. The benchmarking data comes from Google Analytics customers who've chosen to share their data in aggregate.

This isn't the first time fears over data collected by Google Analytics have popped up. But not everyone is worried.

When I spoke with Crosby last month, he told me that for every person who expresses fears over data collection in Analytics, there is another who wants to know why more isn't being done with the data. He told me that Analytics works hard to strike a balance for people of both viewpoints, allowing those who want to share in the hopes of developing deep integrations with other Google products the ability to do so.

Of course, there's only so far you can take integration. Google Analytics does not affect a site's rankings in Google's search results.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

June 6, 2008

Google Analytics Adds Adwords TV Campaign Reporting

Google has added Adwords TV campaign reporting to their Analytics product. If your Adwords and Analytics accounts are linked, you should see any TV campaigns you're running automatically. You'll be able to view web traffic right along data showing how many times your ad was aired.

According to the Google Analytics blog, available TV metrics include:

Impressions delivered
Number of ad plays
Cost
CPM

Will the addition of Adwords TV campaign reporting to Analytics make your day easier? Tell us in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 30, 2008

Google Analytics for Bloggers - Google Relaunches Measure Map

As Twitter microblogging captures the mainstream media's imagination, Google Analytics has quietly relaunched Measure Map analytics for bloggers. Email invitations went out this week to alpha users of the blog tracking software.

The bad news for Measure Map bloggers: historical analytics data from the original Measure Map can't be imported into the Google Analytics / Measure Map platform.

We reported on the acquisition of Adaptive Path's Measure Map by Google back in February, 2006. Since then Jeffrey Veen and his team have redesigned Google Analytics and integrated new features such as Website Optimizer with great success.

Sitepoint's Technical Editor Andrew Tetlaw posted a question on April 11, 2008 in a dormant Google Groups forum for Measure Map:

Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling MM has been abandoned?

Performance is terrible, the browser report still doesn't even recognize Firefox 2.0....

That post seems to have spurred the Google Analytics team to email all the original users of Measure Map to test the newly rebuilt analytics software for bloggers. You can ask the MM team questions in the resuscitated Measure Maps Google Group.

Andrew also told me that to convert to the new and improved Measure Map you need to sign up for a Google Analytics account and add GA tracking code to your site. For an update, check out Andrew's excellent post today in Sitepoint: Measure Map Redux.

We're not sure whether the original MM "Date Slider" will be reinvented but it was one of the original cool tools for Analytics that had wide appeal (even if it seems clunky by today's Web 2.0 standards).

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:01 AM | Permalink

April 16, 2008

Google Analytics Launches "Urchin 6"

At ad:tech San Francisco, Google Analytics today announced the full launch of Urchin Software, Google's advanced - but not free - Web analytics package, aka Urchin 6. Urchin Software is the update to Urchin 5, and anyone can now download a 90-day free trial, at Urchin.com.

For the moment, Urchin is only available in English, but nine other international versions are expected to be available soon.

For search engine marketers who remember the name, Urchin formed the basis of Google Analytics, which was released in 2005. But, Google Analytics is a Google-hosted service, while Urchin is software that users install on their own servers.

This makes Urchin the better option for certain applications. You might use it if you need to: * analyze your firewall-protected content, such as an intranet; * review 5 years' worth of old server log data to analyze; * check if your site's visitors are getting "Page Not Found" (404) errors; * audit your site's traffic by a third party; * create custom reports or integrate with other tools, like a CRM system; or * integrate your e-commerce logs directly with Urchin.

That said, Google continues to recommend Google Analytics for most users and most circumstances, as its marketing-oriented reports are more advanced than Urchin's. You can even use Google Analytics and Urchin together at the same time and get the best of both worlds.

An Urchin license is $2,995. The license allows you to analyze traffic for up to 1000 domains, any number of load-balanced servers, and any number of log files (including access, e-commerce, cost-per-click, and other types of logs).

More information is available on the Google Analytics blog.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 8:08 PM | Permalink

April 8, 2008

SalesForce, Google "Deep Integration" May Improve Google Analytics

Tech Crunch reported the soon to be launched "deep integration" of SalesForce and Google which they see as SalesForce selling Google services though their apps.

But the bigger part of a deep integration to me would be the combination of Google Analytics with SalesForce. This integration would allow people to track conversions offline and bring GA current with the most advanced analytics packages that are already doing this, though the ability has been available to manage AdWords accounts from inside SalesForce since last year.

Though Tech Crunch's earlier comments, on the SalesForce partnership started last year, contributes another benefit - Google gets a sales team for the offline apps.

The speculation will be answered when SalesForce makes their announcement Monday.

Posted by Frank Watson at 9:50 PM | Permalink

February 19, 2008

Snakehead Fish Crosses The Pond?

A giant snakehead fish (the "Jaws" of freshwater fish in Southeast Asia) was caught by a fisherman in England. The snakehead hooked in a river caused a panic in the Midlands and created something of a "Snakes on the Plains" buzz online. The British Environment Agency tried to assuage fears of a snakehead invasion but many of us here in Islington (London SES) remain scared out of our wits secure in the knowledge the Thames River is only kilometres away.

The giant snakehead has been known to crawl on land.

Snakehead fish can grow to more than 5 feet in length. Sharp teeth make the snakehead a feared predator of other river dwellers. FOG (Fear of Google) was one of the themes of the Orion Panel (All Star Analytics Team). London FOG reminded me of the giant snakehead fish. Consumers, corporations and regulatory bodies often have an irrational fear of Google.

They say Google will invade privacy and destroy our natural Internet habitat. Companies fear the mega-search engine will use Google Analytics, Google Conversion Optimizer and Google Checkout to artificially inflate keyword prices. In short, to rig the keyword auction. They worry Google will prey on competitors and customers alike.

With respect to privacy, Jim Sterne of Target Marketing and chairman of the Web Analytics Association put it best:

"Why would I worry about Google knowing what I search for? The privacy issue is that I'm upset the bank knows how much money I have?"

There were no conspiracy theorists in the audience. Brian Clifton, Google's head of Web Analytics, EMEA, didn't even have to defend Google's honor.

Nor did Ian Thomas, Microsoft's director oif customer intelligence attempt to exploit the climate of fear.

Bryan Eisenberg, co-founder, Future Now noted Google needs to be more transparent. Separation of church and state may be tough when Google has so many evangelists, not only in their employ but among brand-loyal consumers.

Google dominates the European and UK search landscape. As scary as the giant snakefish may be, here's the key takeaway:

The more you know, the less you fear.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:13 PM | Permalink

October 24, 2007

Google Offering Online Seminars For Website Optimizer

Google announced yesterday that it will be offering online seminars about their new Website Optimizer program. The first two seminars are scheduled for next week.

The Introduction To Website Optimizer will be given Tuesday October 30 and registration can be done here.

The second on Creating and Launching Experiments will be held Thursday November 1 and can be registered for here.

Posted by Frank Watson at 4:41 PM | Permalink

October 16, 2007

Google Analytics Update

Yesterday evening I was briefed by Brett Crosby about the latest Google Analytics update. Net-net, this is more cool stuff from Google on the analytics front. Coming soon to a Google Analytics account near you (i.e. yours) is the following:

Improved Site Search Reporting. While you could get some data on site search previously, this has been simplified and expanded significantly. You now can get data on keywords, categories, products across time and user segments.
Web 2.0 Event Tracking. This is new, and very exciting stuff. Now you can tag and track Flash and Ajax events. With this announcement, Google Analytics is unveiling a new paradigm, based on an Objection (e.g. a Flash player), Action (Play, Pause), Label (did the user skip a step, start at step 3, ...) model.
Tagless outbound link tracking. Currently, you need to add an "Onclick" tag to your exit links if you want to track them. With this announcement, this is no longer necessary. In the near future you only have to append a tracking parameter, and Google Analytics can still track it without your having to run Javascript when someone clicks on an exit link.

Accessing the Web 2.0 and tagless outbound link tracking will require a change to the basic Javascript placed by users on their sites. The traditional "urchin.js" file called by the Javascript tags will need to be changed to call "ga.js".

There have been several updates from the Google Analytics team this year. The great majority of the prior updates have been focused on catching up to the other products in the industry, namely the paid ones. With this announcement, Google is moving past the catch-up model, and establishing some leadership positions in a few key areas that many webmasters will find compelling.

Additionally, Google has also announced that they are simplifying the pricing model for the Urchin software version of the product. For those of you who are not familiar with this, this is the version of the product which pulls its data from server log files, instead of log files created by Javascript tagging.

The new product offers upgrades and enhancements to the current Urchin 5 version of the product, and is available for $2995. Current Urchin 5 customers who purchased Advanced Support will be upgraded for free, and those who purchased Urchin 5 without Advanced Support will be able to upgrade by paying the difference in price between what they paid and $2995.

Ultimately, the significance of this announcement is that it should lay to rest those rumors in the industry that Google was planning to abandon support for the Urchin Software product.

Posted by Eric Enge at 12:00 PM | Permalink

July 31, 2007

Google Analytics Up and Running Again

The Google Analytics blog announced on Monday that many users were subject to a Temporary Reporting Delay. Since this was in place since Saturday night, many of the affected users were already aware that something was up. The post reassures us that no data will be lost in the process.

An update on the situation late on Monday stated that this situation was almost fully rectified. I can confirm that the accounts I am aware of that were affected do seem to have up to date data at this point in time, so this update seems to be in place, for some of us at least. It does look, however, like there is still some data missing from this past Saturday.

Google has not commented on the cause of the down time. Perhaps the growth of new Google Analytics account was faster than they anticipated, but that's pure speculation on my part. In any event, all seems to be on its way back to normal.

Posted by Eric Enge at 11:55 AM | Permalink

July 10, 2007

Podcast with Brett Crosby and Avinash Kaushik

After a bit of a layoff, I had the pleasure of doing a podcast together with Google Analytics's dynamic duo of Brett Crosby and Avinash Kaushik. Brett handles the marketing of Google Analytics, and Avinash is the "evangelist".

Avinash is a really well known for his Occam's Razor blog, which is a great source of information about analytics. Avinash recently left Intuit, to become an independent, and to work as the Google Analytics Evangelist.

One of the interesting parts of the conversation took place when we discussed the Entrance Paths and Entrance Sources reports within Google Analytics. Both reports give you keen insight into the flow of traffic into, and through your site. Based on the data provided, you can see if the pages on your site are performing the way you expected.

The key distinction between the two is that the Entrance Sources report focuses on pages that are the initial landing pages on your site, whereas the Entrance Paths report looks at entrance and exit paths for any page on your site (even if it is not the initial landing page). Both reports can provide you with quite a bit of value in understanding what users are doing on your site.

Posted by Eric Enge at 10:54 AM | Permalink

June 25, 2007

SEW Experts: Can Google Analytics Be Evil?

In today's Search Ads column, "Can Google Analytics Be Evil?," Tony Wright is looking for feedback on Google Analytics. Like many search marketers, he has recommended that clients stay away from Google Analytics because of concerns about data privacy and some of the ways Google has used AdWords data in the past.

Is he right to be wary, or are the benefits of a free and easy to use analytics application worth any potential risks? Share your thoughts in the SEW Forums.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:36 AM | Permalink

June 13, 2007

Fresh Update to Google Analytics

The Google Analytics has just released an update. The update focused on adding a few select things that they heard as feedback from their recent upgrade back on May 8, 2007. Here is a short summary list of the changes:

Hourly Reporting. The old Google Analytics interface had hourly reporting capability, a feature that was dropped from the product back on May 8th. It turns out that many people were dissapointed with that change. If you are wondering why an hour by hour breakdown would be important, consider the social media environment.

When you are successful of getting to the front page of a social media site, you get a large spike in traffic, and then this drops off once you fall off that page. Hourly tracking makes it easier to track the course of your social media campaign.

Clickable URLs. URLs in the Referring Sites, Top Content, Top Exit Pages, and Top Landing Pages reports are now clickable. This change simply makes it easier to check out new referrers.

Cross Segmentation by Network Location. Google Analytics now offers support for cross segmenting reports by network location.

Increased number of data rows per page. Now you can expand the lists of data you see (for things like referring sites or search keyphrases) up to 500 rows. The prior maximum was 100. This just makes it easier to look over the data when you lots of it.

Bounce Rate color change. Perviously the color red was used to indicate a decrease in bounce rate, and green to indicate an increase in bounce rate. This seemed backwards, so they flipped it.

AdWords Integration. They have made it easier to integrate AdWords into your Google Analytics account. You could do it before this update, but it was a little clumsy. Now the path to integration has been greatly simplified.

Posted by Eric Enge at 9:15 AM | Permalink

May 23, 2007

In today's By the Numbers column, "Digging Deeper Into the Latest Release of Google Analytics," Eric Enge explores the subtle differences in the latest version of Google's metrics tool. Among other enhancements, Enge notes that the new interface does a much better job of presenting the most common numbers people look for up front.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:02 AM | Permalink

May 8, 2007

Google Analytics has come out with a new major release. With this release, Google closes the gap between their solution, and that of many of the more expensive analytics products.

Major new features include:

Customizable Dashboards
Emailing of reports
Improved Segmentation Capabilities
A general overhaul of the UI

I spoke with Brett Crosby yesterday, and he stressed that Google was looking to provide a broader range of functionality to enterprise class customers. The implementation of dashboards is one of the new features that addresses that need. Dashboards allow you to implement different data presentations for different users. Now, with Google Analytics, you can have your business analyst crawling through the deep data, and your CEO getting the simple summary report that they need (without the need for the CEO to get lost in the details).

Here is a screen shot of the new dashboard:

Another former major weakness of Google Analytics was the lack of an ability to email out reports. This functionality has also been added to this new release. This is another feature designed to make life easier for those in your organization that want to receive data, but don't want to have to login to get it.

This can be really key in helping the senior executives of the company appreciate the value of a web analytics solution, and the investment their company makes in it. While Google Analytics is free, the time people spend working with analytics is still an investment, and it needs justification. Getting senior executives the data they need with no muss or fuss is a quite valuable thing to do.

As I mentioned above, Google has also added segmentation capabilities to the product. Segmentation allows you to separately measure the behavior of different groups of visitors. This can be an invaluable tool in helping you optimize your site design. Looking at the behavior of different customer groupings allows you to target your site to the known characteristics of a group of users. This is a very powerful concept.

Here, you can get a look at the new Visitors Overview report, which shows some of the segmentation capabilities:

As you can see from the first two screen shots, the UI has undergone major changes. In addition, the process for selecting a date range has been simplified, and made more elegant. Check out this screen shot:

Existing users will be updated over the next few weeks, and new users will start with the new version. Existing users will be able to access both the new version and the old version for 30 days. In addition, historical data will still be available in the new version.

Based on what I have seen so far, these are major steps ahead for Google Analytics. The lack of dashboard capability and the inability to email out reports were two big limitations in Google Analytics to date. Now these limitations are gone. Google Analytics already works with some major enterprise vendors, such as Agency.com, Deckers, RE/MAX, and others. This should enable Google to capture more larger enterprise business.

Note that there continues to be pieces of functionality available from vendors that charge for their products, that is not present in this new release of Google Analytics. But this release does narrow the gap in key areas.

Posted by Eric Enge at 1:30 PM | Permalink

April 20, 2007

Sage Lewis of SageRock has posted a video interview with Avinash Kaushik of Google Analytics, as part of a series of interviews he did at SES New York. You can see it here:

Sage Lewis also does daily how-to web marketing video that is geared toward the traditional marketer that is doing web marketing.

Sage will be speaking on measuring social media marketing at our upcoming SEW Live! in Columbus, Ohio on May 9th.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 1:01 PM | Permalink

March 6, 2007

Web analytics consultant Avinash Kaushik announced today on his Occam's Razor blog that he's leaving his position as director of Web research & analytics at Intuit to strike out on his own as an independent consultant. His first gig is as an "analytics evangelist" for Google, working with Google's marketing team on internal analytics, and with the Google Analytics team to spread the analytics gospel to the masses.

To learn more about Avinash, check out a recent interview he did with SEW blogger Eric Enge.

Another Web analytics blogger announced he's going solo today too. Kevin Hillstrom, formerly Nordstrom's VP of database marketing, is launching his own consulting practice, MineThatData.

Is this another sign of Web analytics going mainstream?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 3:22 PM | Permalink

January 15, 2007

Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting has just posted an interview with Google Analytics' Brett Crosby. Crosby came to Google via its acquisition of Urchin in March 2005.

Crosby shares Google Analytics' philosophy of building a scalable product with minimal service needs, and delegating professional services duties to partners. He also shares the good things about being acquired by Google: free food, access to technology, and learning Google's secret plans for world domination (at least those are the kinds of secrets we imagine he's talking about). On the downside, apparently there's a whole lot of e-mail going on at Google, and they actually expect employees to answer it. Maybe that's why they have so little time to answer e-mail from outsiders?

Crosby also lists the biggest issues facing analytics providers in 2007: * Trackability issues resulting from blocked cookies and Javascript * Tracking rich Internet applications, like AJAX, where pageviews are meaningless * Developing tracking methods for mobile * Scaling the human side of data analysis -- getting the right information to the right people so they can take action

He also shares Google's plans for integrating outside data into Google Analytics, thoughts on latent conversions, and more.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

August 15, 2006

Google announced today that the popular Google Analytics is now instantly available to the public. No more waiting for invitation codes. Anyone with a website can now install the website tracking tool by directly signing up at the Google Analytics homepage, or by clicking through the "Analytics" tab in any Google AdWords account. It is not required to have a Google Adwords account to run Google Analytics.

More information can be found on the official Google Analytics blog. Additional educational and support materials are also available at Conversion University.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 7:47 PM | Permalink

June 16, 2006

Google Analytics has launched the Google Analytics Blog to provide product update news, bug fixes, and probably some how to posts.

You'll find the feed here. As Auto-discovery is not working, you have to manually enter the feed URL into your news reader. Also, notice the title tag of the blog is just "Google Analytics" rather than Google Analytics Blog. OK, I'll stop picking on them.

They did announce a new feature in the first blog entry, "AdWords Analysis" report.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:40 AM | Permalink

February 15, 2006

Google announced that they have acquired Measure Map, a blog tracking software product. This product "helps you understand what people do at your blog, and what influence you are having on the world." I haven't tried the product, but reportedly, it is easy to set up and gives you information that you want to see, quickly. Some of the information includes number of visitors, number of links to your blog, number of comments and number of blog entries views out of the ones posted.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:50 AM | Permalink

February 9, 2006

Google Analytics now works in Apple Safari, hurray! I'm a Mac person, in case you didn't get that. A bit more on the change over at Search Engine Roundtable here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 4:32 PM | Permalink

January 24, 2006

The News.com story: Google offers fee-based online ad analytics, reports that Google has teamed with Zaaz (a Seattle-based interactive agency) to offer fee-based support for Google Analytics users who need more support, consulting, and training that's available from the free version of the service.

The full text of the Zaaz press release is available here.

In terms access to the free version of Google Analytics, the GA site says that another batch of invites went out last week to people who have "expressed an interest" in the service via email.

From the site: Today, we sent out another batch of invitations to many of you who expressed interest in a Google Analytics account. If you have not received an invitation, please continue to be patient. Although we are adding system capacity every day, the demand for Google Analytics accounts still outpaces our ability to add resources. We are working hard and will continue to send out invitations as frequently as we can.

Google once again began offering invites to register for the Google Analytics service on January 11, 2006.

Posted by Gary Price at 7:50 PM | Permalink

January 11, 2006

Google Blogoscoped has an item about the latest with Google Analytics. The company is now saying that some people who previously submitted their email address will "shortly" receive invitations allowing them to register and use the service. Just how many invites are being sent out is not specified in this Google Analytics "status update". However, it does say that, "not everyone who previously sent us an email address received an invite."

This update adds: Currently, we don't have enough capacity yet to re-open signups for everyone who wants an account...We will continue to send out additional invites as we add more capacity. If you haven't submitted your email address to us, please do so on our signup form.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:40 PM | Permalink

January 5, 2006

The Computerworld article: Google Analytics still off limits to new users, by Juan Carlos Perez reports that Google is not offering a timeline (except saying that they hope it's by midyear) when new users will be able to register and use the free service that launched in November.

Only days after its launch as a free service, new users were no longer able to register. This post from November 20th tells the story.

The three page article also includes comments from users who not only hope Google increases the backbone for Google Analytics but also improves its customer service. Jupiter Research analyst Eric Peterson said that customer support has been a big challenge for Google Analytics since the stampede of new users joined back in November. "The major problem people are having is the one we predicted all along: that it's not very well supported," he said.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:39 PM | Permalink

December 4, 2005

What might this holidays season's most popular item and topic be for grown-ups be? A satellite radio? A new car with GPS? A trip to St. Barts? Nope, it just might be the fear of Google and what to do about it. I guess a company that does "no evil" and fear of that same "no evil" company are not the same thing. (-;

Reuters (via News.com) has a lengthy look at how another group, in this case Madison Avenue advertisers, fear Google in the aritcle: Madison Avenue faces Google fears.

We're reading article like this on a very regular basis these days. Last week, we posted: + Who's Afraid of Google? Everyone from Wired. + News.com's: Google--what you get for $400, a share that offered a chart of who Google competes with in various areas. + About a month ago, we blogged: NYT On Google As Threat To Other Businesses

Today's Reuters article includes the following takeaways:

On Google Analytics: "There is an inherent conflict of interest there," said Brian McAndrews, chief executive of aQuantive, a company that is both a big buyer and reseller of Google advertising but also a rival supplier of ad measurement tools. "Am I going to use Google to measure my search results on Microsoft and Yahoo? Am I going to use Google to measure my advertising results on ESPN?" McAndrews asked rhetorically during the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit on Thursday.

Btw, Battelle recently had an excellent post (with lots of comments) on what he called Google's "tipping point."

In my most recent round of conference presentations to search consumers, I've started to notice more interest in what other search companies are doing and how to use these tools. That said, Google is still number one.

On Charging Marketing Firms [David] Verklin, [chief executive of Carat America] (owners of IProspect) complains Google has begun charging marketing firms like his own $50,000 a month to use Google's ad buying system. He adds, ""We're going to try and convince (Google) we think that's a bad idea," Verklin said. "I don't want to have to use one tool to manage Google and my own tool to manage Yahoo and Ask Jeeves and everyone else," he said of conflicts between ad systems."

What does Google have to say? "There's this notion that Google has a grand master devious plan" to put ad agencies and publishers out of business, [Marc] Leibowitz [Google's director of strategic partnerships] said. "Nothing could be further from the truth. We see ourselves in a symbiotic relationship with them."

Posted by Gary Price at 5:55 PM | Permalink

November 29, 2005

CustomizeGoogle is a popular Firefox extension that offers numerous (understatement) to change the look of Google pages. One options is being able to easily remove ads from Google results pages.

Today, the CustomizeGoogle Blog points out yet another new optional feature that allows users to block Google Analytics cookies on ANY web site.

This page has a detailed explanation, examples, issues, and other methods of how not to be tracked.

Over the weekend I posted about a another new option discussed on the also new CustomizeGoogle blog that allows pages from Google Book Search to be printed.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:57 PM | Permalink

November 20, 2005

Over on the ZDNet.com Blogs, Garrett Rogers reports in the article: Google Analytics stops at 234,725 accounts, that Google is temporarily limiting the number of new users who can sign-up for Google Analytics service that became free (for many users) last week.

Rogers writes: According to the Google Analytics "sign up" page, they have temporarily disallowed people from signing up. They also removed the "Add new profile" link from inside analytics which previously allowed a single account to track up to 40 different Web sites. With 234,725 Analytics accounts created (and probably over 200,000 additional profiles), Google has went from tracking zero to almost half a million in about a week."

The sign-up on the Google Analytics site now notifies new users when they can register.

More comment and analysis from Nathan at Inside Google and Om.

One comment left on the InsideGoogle post points out that a temporary "closing" of new services (like we've also seen with Google Web Accelerator and Google Earth) might be as much about marketing as it is about "overwhelmed" technology. I think this is a good point. Temporarily shutting registration down keeps people talking (as in this post), buzz going, and interest/demand at a high level. Sure, many might be upset (for various reasons) but might this be an example of any mention being a good mention.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:11 PM | Permalink

November 14, 2005

Google has renamed its Urchin web analytics unit to be -- yep -- Google Analytics (as Gary predicted), in a move that follows with similar rebranding such as Keyhole being renamed Google Earth. And just like with Keyhole and Google's Picasa photo software, Google is turning Google Analytics into a free product.

The On Demand product is free for anyone. If you don't have an AdWords account, you're limited to five million page views per month (which is a lot). Need more? Make a $5 one time deposit, open an AdWords account, and you're set with unlimited page views.

The software based product remains fee-based. Google said that might change, but there were no immediate plans at the moment.

Google also said a number of new dashboards for different types of customers -- webmasters, advertisers and so on -- are being introduced to spotlight key metrics.

Worried Google will use your data or the data overall to better understand how much you are willing to pay for ads, based on conversions. Google said that's definitely not done, nor are there any plans to do that. Nor are there any plans to tap into the data as a means of improving regular search results or to identify "bad" sites, Google said.

Google acquired Urchin in March of this year and lowered pricing for it in May.

Want to discuss? Visit our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Urchin Now Google Analytics, Now Free.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:01 AM | Permalink

July 29, 2005

Since the blogosphere is always ripe with speculation, I'll toss an item out. Does Google have plans to either begin offering expanding what they currently provide and/or rebranding their services as Google Analytic or Google Analytics in the near future (maybe SES)? We're watching. Why am I mentioning this? In the past week Google has registered both Googleanalytic.com (and other domains) and Google-analytic.com (and other domains). A company that often "holds" domains for Google (before the product/service is launched) has Googleanalytics.com registered. Stay tuned.

Postscript: Google Analytics has launched, as coverd more in Google Renames Urchin Google Analytics, Makes It Free

Posted by Gary Price at 9:32 AM | Permalink

May 4, 2005

We posted yesterday that Google had reduced the price of their Urchin web analytics service. Today, we noticed that a Web Analytics FAQ has been added to the Google AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:30 AM | Permalink

May 3, 2005

This afternoon the Googleplex announced that a monthly subscription to Urchin on Demand, a web analytics service, has been reduced by 60% to $199 per month. Google acquired Urchin about a month ago.

In addition to the reduced price and increased number of profiles, Urchin On Demand is now able to import -pay--per-click costs directly from Google AdWords accounts.

By the way, the lower Urchin price is a continuation of Google's trend of discounting products to win marketshare. The Picasa photo software it gave away for free after it was originally for sale at $30. Keyhole was reduced in price. This past post gives some more background on this Google strategy

Posted by Gary Price at 7:03 PM | Permalink

March 29, 2005

Google is to acquired the Urchin web analytics firm, which provides both hosted and log-based tools for understanding how people are interacting with web sites.

The Google press release notes that the company plans to continue offering the tools to site owners and marketers, though it doesn't say whether pricing would change. I imagine that Google might offer some versions completely free, in order to build greater marketshare. The company has done the same with many of its other products, such as with the Picasa photo management tool.

One reason to jump into web analytics is that the search companies understand that as search ad prices rise, people will only be willing to pay more if they can justify this by showing better conversions. Web analytics can help those who aren't tracking conversions or who are tracking conversions at only a basic level to better understand the full picture of what happens on their web sites. For more on this, see my Most Conversions Happen Offline; You Need To Measure These! post.

This is one reason why both Yahoo and Google already offer free conversion tracking tools to their advertisers (Yahoo info here; Google info here, though the link to the page with more info on the tool has disappeared). Providing full web analytics may help companies improve conversion even more. Yahoo already owns web analytics technology that it obtained through its 2003 purchase of Keylime. Now Google joins the club.

How much is the deal for? The Google release doesn't say, but John Battelle reports a tip of the $30 million range. SiliconBeat reports the same.

Want to discuss? Please join our forum thread, Google Buys Urchin.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

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