Unofficial Google Analytics News

Analyze This

2008-09-02T11:00:00.000+03:00

Within three months of implementing a program by San Diego-based company DriveCam in 2007, the Ireland-based transport company Iggy Madden Transport reduced its vehicle accidents by 80 percent.

The solution wasn't better trucks or new drivers -- instead, cameras installed on the trucks' dashboards would detect risky behavior like swerves or collisions, and then recorded the events 30 seconds before and after. DriveCam would download the video footage and analyze the accidents for Iggy Madden, which then went over the incidents with its drivers.

The cameras were smart enough to detect potential accidents in the first place because of analytics -- the use of mathematical models to analyze data, detect patterns and predict behavior.

Companies have always used complex mathematical formulas to minimize losses and track customer preferences. But as more and more companies struggle to evaluate heaps and heaps of data ushered in by the information age, industry experts say San Diego could very well claim analytics as its third major technology bragging right, after biotechnology and telecommunications.

MySQL gaining in online ad analytics?

2008-08-15T20:28:00.000+03:00

Open-source database MySQL isn't the first platform most companies think of when considering a business intelligence platform. Yet, the Sun Microsystems Inc. product appears to be winning customers in the online advertising space.

Online advertising firms using MySQL include Google Inc., ValueClick, Yahoo's BlueLithium and Right Media.

The latest is Gorilla Nation Media LLC, an LA firm which is standardizing from a hodge-podge of database technologies, including Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server, onto MySQL, according to a release put out Wednesday.

Gorilla Nation will use MySQL to handle more than 1 TB of data in both high-end boxes as well as clusters, according to a spokesman.

Google Analytics Won't Gossip, Says Google

2008-07-10T23:36:00.000+03:00

Along with adding that tiny link to its privacy policy ahead of the holiday weekend, Google also noted something its free Analytics service does not do.

Google made a lot more information available to users of its services. Both the general public and the advertising clients who feed its bottom line received access to expanded looks at the habits of Internet viewers, courtesy of the Google Trends for Websites and Ad Planner products.

There's something these services won't do, the company said in the Google Analytics blog. Despite the extra access, Google claimed neither product will expose site-level data about individual websites:

Tracking TV Campaigns On AdWords Using Google Analytics

2008-06-15T08:13:00.000+03:00

Today Google announced, that the advertisers who run TV Campaigns via Google AdWords can track the online impact of those TV ads using Google Analytics. According to Google...

...AdWords blog, you can track website metrics, such as visits, conversion rates and revenue, alongside metrics from your TV Ads campaigns such as:

Google Restores Google Analytics Data

2008-05-20T23:00:00.000+03:00

Update from Google: Google informed me the data loss recovery is complete. The data loss "was confined to roughly 5% of all data and 10% of e-commerce data," a Google rep told me.

Google Analytics Finally Launched For Bloggers

2008-05-06T12:11:00.000+03:00

Among the many collections that Google has had on its plate over the past two years, and now -- The good news for some enthusiastic Bloggers, Google has quietly moved up the analytics game with their latest feature set in the analytics tool: “Google Analytics for Blogger” has officially entered private beta.

And the discouraging news for Measure Map bloggers: existing analytics data from the original Measure Map cannot be transferred into the Google Analytics / Measure Map platform.

Back in February 2006 Google purchased the Adaptive Path’s innovative set of blog traffic measurement tools called MeasureMap. Since then Jeffrey Veen and his team have redesigned Google Analytics and integrated new features such as Website Optimizer with great success.

Google Analytics Data Sharing

2008-04-23T16:21:00.001+03:00

Google Analytics has an option to allow you to share your analytics data with Google in return for services like Google Benchmarking and enhanced ad features that will be released in future.

Google provides following two options for data sharing.

Yahoo to Buy Online Analytics Company IndexTools

2008-04-15T19:08:00.000+03:00

Yahoo announced on April 9 that it will acquire IndexTools, an online advertising analytics provider, a purchase that should improve Yahoo's position to take on Google and Microsoft in the battle for online advertising dollars.

Microsoft meanwhile continues its threat to acquire Yahoo, forcefully if necessary, in an attempt to compete with Google.

IndexTools, otherwise known as Tensa Kft, competes with Google Analytics and Microsoft adCenter Analytics, and several smaller online analytics companies. It provides an analytics platform to monitor Web traffic and consumer clicks.

Will Woopra Whip Google Analytics’ Butt?

2008-04-06T01:47:00.001+03:00

If you’re a blogger you should hopefully already use Google Analytics (or your favorite alternative) to keep track of referral and keyword data to your blog.

Hold on to your hat, Woopra’s going to make you drool!

Woopra is in closed beta, but it’s shaping up to be a web analytics client on steroids with live tracking and real time analysis of visitors. You’ll be impressed with Woopra’s main features:

Google Analytics Benchmarking Live

2008-03-25T11:01:00.000+02:00

Googles new benchmarking section is live now in Google Analytics. If you opted in to the servive, you will find it in your site stats navigation at Visitors -> Benchmarking. You will then see a number of charts from sites of comparable traffic, so that you can find out if e.g. your visitors stay longer on pages than average, or if they visit more pages than average. Your own sites traffic will be displayed in the usual blue, whereas the traffic of all the other comparable sites is displayed with a gray line. (Note that the invidiual charts graphics use sub titles, not headlines; this is formatted so it can be misunderstood.)

Also, a category list on top offers items like Entertainment/ Music or Society/ Education which you can pick from to restrict the charts to compare to sites within that category only.

Search Engine Strategies New York this week

2008-03-18T22:10:00.000+02:00

1. Integrate or Die – Measuring basic metrics are the price of entry. To succeed, you need to apply those measurements to other events beyond your Web site, and see what's making or costing you money.

2. Measure Bounce Rate – Bounce rate is your Web site visitor saying to you, "I came, I saw, I puked." If they come to one page and leave right away, you're not giving visitors what they're looking for. Figure that out and fix it.

3. Go Beyond Ego Bidding – The definition of success for one site will be different than success for another. The key is to find your own success metric, such as conversions, or time on site, and measure your performance against that metric.

Google Analytics Benchmarking Beta

2008-03-13T20:42:00.000+02:00

I logged into my Google Analytics account tonight only to be presented with a new option: Benchmarking Beta. Apparently you can opt into a program that lets Google anonymously datamine all of your statistics. (At first you're always thinking why on earth you would want to opt into this.) However, if you do so, data from other sites that have also enabled benchmarking all get combined and Google shows how your site compares to industry standards.

I can't really comment much on the new feature because it says that my first report will appear within a few weeks, but I'm encouraged to see what type of statistics it will present me with.

Can Google Analytics help my e-mail marketing?

2008-03-09T00:31:00.000+02:00

Marketing professionals know that careful, accurate and constant campaign tracking and analysis are just as important as delivery itself. Integrating Google Analytics into your e-mail marketing is an easy—and free—way to make this possible.

Google Analytics has become one of the industry’s most powerful Internet marketing tools, helping advertisers, publishers and Web site owners improve their sales conversion, campaign targeting and marketing initiatives. It is a robust Web statistics software application provided by Google free of charge.

You can learn where your visitors come from, whether referred by search engines, ads, e-mails, blogs or affiliates. And you’ll know which cities, states and countries your primary visitor traffic resides in, so you can more carefully target future ad campaigns.

Web Analytics Roundtable

2008-03-05T00:33:00.000+02:00

This session provides an overview of web analytics and how it can be used to analyze search marketing performance, followed by Q&A with web analytics experts and tool representatives.

Moderator: Jim Sterne, Founding President and Chairman, Web Analytics Association
Q&A Moderator: John Marshall, CTO and Founder, Market Motive

Google Sites offers simple tools for collaborative Web site creation

2008-03-01T11:36:00.001+02:00

Google on Thursday plans to introduce Google Sites, a new addition to its Google Apps suite that provides simple, intuitive tools for collaborative Web site creation.

Google Sites is based on the wiki technology developed by JotSpot, which Google acquired in October, 2006. The word "wiki," however, appears to have been lost during the move.

"We see Google Sites as bigger than a wiki," said Matthew Glotzbach, product management director of Google's enterprise group. "It's as easy to edit as a wiki, but looks as good as a Web site. ... One of the challenges of wikis, even though working with them is easier than working with HTML, is that they're built by IT for IT, and not with the end-user experience in mind."

Google Talks Up AdWords And Analytics Seminars

2008-02-27T12:00:00.000+02:00

The majority of Google-related developments take place in or near Mountain View. The company's now trying to spread the love, however, and over the next few months, will be holding AdWords and Analytics seminars in five different places.

Admittedly, Denver, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Raleigh, and Dallas aren't perfectly spaced throughout the continental U.S., and inhabitants of our two freak states are plumb out of luck. But a lot of people who want attend should be able to lop a few miles off their trips, and that's a start.

Lesser Known Google Analytics Features

2008-02-23T16:25:00.000+02:00

Feature of Google Analytics and a very nice one. Not only can you see what a visitor put into your internal search box, but what page they were on when they made the search and what page they chose in the search results. Any internal search will work as long as it passes the search variable through the URL. Heres a short video interview with Googles Brett Crosby on some of those features.

strong>Filter out domains. Lets say your Google Analytics code somehow got on another site and your stats were getting tainted with irrelevant data. No problem. You can create a filter to not count anyone from specific domains you add in. Oddly enough, you can also filter out your own domain so your stats flat line. Not a good idea to do that though.

Tracking Email Campaigns Using Google Analytics

2008-02-19T12:14:00.001+02:00

Google Analytics is a free Web analytics tool that can be integrated with your email marketing campaigns to gain valuable information about the subscriber activity on your site. This data can be used to increase the effectiveness of future campaigns, and thus boost sales conversions, subscribers, or other campaign goals. In fact, according to a 2005 JupiterResearch report, using Web analytics to target email campaigns can produce nine times the revenues and 18 times the profits compared to regular mass email campaigns.

Google Urchin Vs. Google Analytics

2008-02-15T23:43:00.001+02:00

Urchin was created for companies that have content behind a security firewall or have other restrictions that do not allow them to use Google Analytics. With Urchin, you can install and manage the software on your own servers while Google Analytics is service-hosted and maintained by Google.

While Urchin and Google Analytics have their similarities, they do have many differences. One of the biggest differences that could be even be a deciding factor for some users, is that fact that Google Analytics is free and Google Urchin is not.

Live Chat Statistics with Google Analytics

2008-02-10T11:30:00.000+02:00

LivePerson, Inc. , a provider of online engagement solutions that facilitate real-time assistance and trusted expert advice, today announced that it has seamlessly integrated its live chat technology with the powerful Google Analytics(TM) reporting platform enabling small and midsized businesses to accurately measure the impact of the chat channel on sales and conversion rates.

Google Urchin 6.0 Now in Beta

2008-02-04T23:22:00.000+02:00

Good news, analytics folks: Google Urchin 6.0 is now in beta. It looks a lot like the free version of Google Analytics but the cost is pretty high: $2995 after the beta period ends.

As one member puts it, "who is the target audience for that price.

Google AnalyticsAdvisor Starts Posting in WebmasterWorld Forum

2008-01-29T16:25:00.000+02:00

On WebmasterWorld, AnalyticsAdvisor has volunteered to spend some time helping webmasters answer questions regarding Google Analytics. Apparently, this guy knows what he's talking about and is deeply involved in the Analytics sphere:

View your Google Analytics on your desktop

2008-01-22T23:24:00.000+02:00

If you use Google Analytics to track your website stats, then you may be interested in the Google Analytics AIR widget, which uses Adobe Air to let you view your stats at the desktop.
The MakeUseOf blog has written up the software (which is in beta) and gives it a thumbs up - if you're willing to hand over your Google Analytics password. Air grabs the data from Google Analystics for you (no need to visit the site directly) and shows you the data in graphical format. All the stats from GA are available for you, and the information can be exported to PDF, Excel or XML formats.

Measure Blog Success without Spending a Fortune

2008-01-18T17:03:00.000+02:00

Search Marketers reach for blog style content management systems more and more these days for marketing applications. Free open source blogging software like WordPress make publishing viral content and interacting with social communities turnkey and easy. That said, measuring the success of the effort can be an expensive and daunting task. Making things more complicated, Google Analytics web stats is not always the most useful package for on-site blog metrics.

Widget Analytics Meets Widget Audience Measurement

2008-01-13T02:30:00.000+02:00

"What's a Widget Worth?" The article focused on the fact that social networks are exploding in growth, but that the software development community contributing to fuel this growth is not getting a piece of the revenue that their applications and widgets are helping to support. At the forefront of the article was the announcement that comScore is revamping its widget usage data report to offer more comprehensive coverage. They will begin to account for widgets built with JavaScript (in addition to Flash), which will open up the capability to measure widgets on one of the hottest social networks on the Web, Facebook.