Google Launches Web Traffic Analysis Service 247
segphault writes to pass along that Ars Technica has an interesting article about the recently released Google Analytics. Analytics is Google's new traffic analysis service that helps you to know everything from "how your visitors found you [to] how they interact with your site." Analytics is also built to integrate with AdWords if you are already utilizing that service.
How visitors found this (Score:5, Funny)
Re:slashdotted... (Score:2)
interesting acronym... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:interesting acronym... (Score:2)
Urchin (Score:5, Insightful)
Did they do this based on their acquisition of Urchin? Are Urchin staff now working on this instead? Does this mean the death of Urchin software?
Re:Urchin (Score:2)
Re:Mod me down. (Score:5, Funny)
for the slashdotted crew (Score:5, Informative)
Analytics features an elegant user interface that leverages modern web technologies like Flash and DHTML. Although it seems a little rough around the edges (the Flash components don't display correctly in Firefox on my Linux system) the service is moderately impressive. It can export data in several formats, including XML and CSV. With Analytics, you can determine where your visitors are coming from, which links on your site are getting the most hits, how long the visitors spend on various pages of your site, and more:
Learn how visitors interact with your website and identify the navigational bottlenecks that keep them from completing your conversion goals. Find out how profitable your keywords are across search engines and campaigns. Pinpoint where your best customers come from and which markets are most profitable to you. Google Analytics gives you this and more through easy-to-understand visually enhanced reports.
It is still relatively difficult to get a good feel for the usefulness of the system at this point, but with over 80 pre-built reports, support for interactive report construction, and tracking for countless attributes, the amount of data it provides is downright prodigious. In addition to providing critical marketing data, it also tracks browser features so that web developers can make informed design decisions. Analytics will tell you the screen resolution and connection speed of your visitors, as well as whether or not their browsers support Flash and Java. Flash-rendered graphs are provided with each data collection so that you can get a quick visual overview.
Although it may not be especially useful compared to some of the critical features, the geographical map overlay is probably one of the coolest features. Analytics will generate a Flash-based map of the world that shows you which regions your traffic comes from. You can click individual regions to get additional statistics, and you can use Flash's built-in zoom feature to get a closer look at specific locations.
The site overlay mechanism is one of the other particularly interesting features. It will superimpose click statistics on top of your actual page so that you can (hypothetically) see what people are clicking just by browsing your site. During my experiments with Analytics, I had some trouble getting the site overlay feature to work correctly. Clicking the individual links in the site overlay caused the Analytics start page to load in the iframe rather than the actual content.
Analytics fits perfectly into Google's advertising platform and business model. Despite the bugs (which may be specific to Linux or Firefox) Google's newest service looks powerful and comprehensive. The value of the features and the benefits of AdWords integration will probably be more than enough to convince site owners to use AdWords rather than a competing service.
And The Best Part Of It Is... (Score:5, Funny)
(You just have to pay Google if you DON'T want them to track every little thing about you.)
Re:for the slashdotted crew (Score:3, Insightful)
it also tracks browser features so that web developers can make informed design decisions. Analytics will tell you the screen resolution and connection speed of your visitors, as well as whether or not their browsers support Flash and Java.
Damnit no. How many times does this need to be explained?
You know my screen resolution? Great. I a) surf non-maximised, b) surf with a sidebar open, c) use two monitors, or d) all of the above.
You know my connection speed? Great. I'm now using my favourite
Re:for the slashdotted crew (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:for the slashdotted crew (Score:3, Insightful)
I cant fu3king wait!!!
Urchin (Score:4, Insightful)
shameless MS plug? (Score:2, Funny)
What's this all about? How did M$ infect my daily dosage of Slasdot/Google news?
Re:shameless MS plug? (Score:3, Insightful)
Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:5, Interesting)
I know google has always been concerned about "legitimate" use of their data, but this is somehow frightening...
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:5, Informative)
This means that the added code has the ability to change the look of the page completely. If at any time Google decided that all web pages should have the word Microsoft replaced by Google, they could do this by adding an onload function to the javascript code that is added to all web pages using this service.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:5, Insightful)
It is a question of trust. If you decide to use their service, you will need them to have access to your pages (through JavaScript). If you don't trust them, just don't subscribe.
My DSL Provider has a lot of information about myself as well, and I trust them with it. If my trust vanished, I'd switch (well, in France you have actually a lot of choice).
My bank
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only a question of trust. It's also a matter of Google's reputation. Much like in the recent backlash at Sony, people are not going to sit idly when a company does something stupid. Google has much more to lose by pulling a stunt like that than the gain it would provide. Plus, you could always just rip the snippet out of your page if it does something undesirable.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
You've gotten confused again. You see, the people on slashdot are not representative of the population in general. Therefore, while the Sony matters (and other issues) are red-hot on this site, they are not well known outside of slashdot and similar sites. Yes, there were a few mainstream news articles on the Sony issue, but by and large it went by unnoticed.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
Hopefully the person doing this is tech savvy, and knows what they are doing. We're not really talking about the lay-public anymore, we are talking about people verging on geeks.
Sony DRM can effect everyone, most of whom have no idea what DRM is, what a root kit is, or how it can compromise security, it also is done on the sly. With Google's new gizmo, you must copy the code, into your existant code, by hand (meaning you have knowledge).
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
To the contrary, I believe that the 368 stories listed on Google News, including ones in the Wahington Post, USA Today, NY Times, Boston Globe, BBC News, CNN, and many more could be counted as more than a few mainstream articles. The fact of the matter is while it may have been techies that uncovered it, the public was made aware of it and more importantly, it is fo
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
Re:But only... (Score:2)
Google has a lot to lose only if a sufficient number of people react negatively. Many people are so complacent, they let companies/politicians get away with anything short of murder. They might pay lip service, but when it comes down to money, sacrificing convenience, or having to change one's m.o. a little, all bets are off. It's the American way.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:5, Interesting)
But believe you me, I'm going to sign up the MOMENT the site isn't slashdotted.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
<img width=1 height=1 border=0 alt="" src="http://adtracker.google.com/trackscript.asp?
(The possibility that the tracker might be written in ASP is purely for humour value)
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
What folks really care about is the proliferation of anti-spyware software that deletes persistent cookies that allow analytics packages to track individual visitors as they return to the site (an
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:5, Interesting)
Executing someone else's JavaScript on your website means begging for trouble. JavaScript can install handlers to watch everything the visitor is doing, can read, create and modify cookies, can nose through that window's or tab's visited page history. Let's not talk about truly evil stuff such as inspecting content on the pages, overlaying links and buttons or injecting content.
I'm sorry, no matter how much of a white in shining armor Google is, not sane webmaster should willfully inject foreign JavaScript on his website.
PS: and before anybody replies that you can download the urchin script and see what it does, let me ask if you're willing to monitor it constantly.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:5, Insightful)
My point is that it is about trust, as a previous poster said. A heck of a lot of companies do business in the exact same way. If you don't trust Google with your site, then don't use it (and get a license of Urchin for yourself- that is extremely solid software; I'd say the best in the business).
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:5, Insightful)
But the thing is, that doesn't happen. If Google attempted this, the behavior would quickly be discovered (because, although *you* aren't reviewing the
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
Unless the server depends on information gathered by the client retreiving the script, it should be simple enough to make a copy of the JS, take a good careful look at it, and install it in a place under your control. Call your copy of the JS from your pages, and you only need to monitor Google's scripts for updates.
I'm not saying that I'm happy about
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:4, Informative)
Nope. Javascript loaded using runs in the security context of the main browser (as opposed to an iframe). document.cookie, document.write, the referer, etc. are all available.
In fact, Google AdSense already does this. They write in an iframe that passes the number of plugins you have, the mime types you support, your resolution (screen, and window), if you have java installed, and the referer for every person who comes to the site. They use document.write() to write this IFRAME. There isn't really a lot they can't do through this.
No different than Google ads. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2, Insightful)
Further thought to chew: Once Google has eaten all the worlds content, secrets, and privacy... Government(s) will (are?) have a field day getting court orders to tap that index in new and ever more creative ways.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:3, Insightful)
This is no different from many other counter services already provided on the web (well, it has more robust reporting considering it's free).
I do loathe the fact that it's a remote JS file, that has to change.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
It tracks you.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:5, Interesting)
Big brother and all, this is still the best way for a lot of people to manage their web traffic logging. Before selecting a company to work with, read their privacy policy.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2, Insightful)
The way I look at this is:
If you want to worry about privacy and "big brother", complain about AdSense. This is a simple extension, at most.
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:3, Insightful)
Asketh the AC:
Well, obviously DoubleClick are evil. Google do no evil, so this time it's completely different, and it's OK to run someone else's JavaScript on your web site.
</sarcasm>
Re:Big Brother-esque (again) (Score:2)
Oddest Terms of Service (Score:5, Interesting)
From the Terms of Service: The Google Services are made available for your personal, non-commercial use only.. Doesn't this reduce slightly the usefulness, or at least the potential audience, of the service?
I am sure that's a mistake, but that prevents me from using the service for anything useful right now. Or even from testing it.
Doubt it's a mistake (Score:2)
Re:Doubt it's a mistake (Score:2)
From the TOS (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Oddest Terms of Service (Score:2)
We have had Urchin for a while, and its charts-n-graphs are quite popular with web artistes, management types, and the departmental end users whose web pages are
Re:Oddest Terms of Service (Score:2)
This is covered by the sentence in the introduction: As used in this agreement, "Google Services" does not include the Adwords or Adsense programs. But note that Analytics is not (yet?) excluded.
c'mon (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:c'mon (Score:2)
You just answered the question: some script on every page. What's so hard about that? Maybe you just don't have the skills of Google's potential customers for this feature.
Is this the future of google? (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems to me that the page rank is too easilly manipulated so they are resorting to the alexia toolbar method.
Already they are pusing their toolbar hard (even for firefox where is has limited appeal). This says even more to me that they are using the stats from the toolbar and now these stats to monitor user browsing behavior, which it will use to better their search results.
Re:Is this the future of google? (Score:2)
Rather this than rely on DMOZ etc. (Score:3, Insightful)
Disclaimer: I'm as sceptical as the next guy about having any big organisation collecting massive amounts of data about some area of the Internet, and Google are clearly the biggest potential abusers of that information.
However, right now the text that appears for a web site I help to run if you find it in Google isn't written by either Google or us, it's written by some anonymous editor at DMOZ. Those editors are notorious for not giving a damn what the webmasters of sites they link to (or don't link to,
Use this to improve search (Score:5, Interesting)
Welcome to 1993! (Score:2, Funny)
Gee, that's just what I need, another one of those broken odometers on my pages.
Google starting to slip? (Score:5, Funny)
This just isn't the quality I'd expect from their team of PhD and mental masters...
Google if you're listening.. I have pages of code that throw syntax errors... scoop me up quick! I'm everything you're looking for and more!
Schnikeys we slashdotted google (Score:2, Interesting)
Currently Undergoing Maintenance
Google Analytics reporting is currently undergoing maintenance and will be available shortly. Your site traffic is being logged and you will be able to see the data after system maintenance has concluded.
Re:Schnikeys we slashdotted google (Score:3, Interesting)
Giving the others a run for their money. (Score:2, Informative)
NedStat always seemed to be one of the better free analytic sites out there, with them starting to pup pop-u
Re:Giving the others a run for their money. (Score:2)
I surely will try Google when it is working.
I found Google Analytics' information rather strange. It is all talk that seems directed at big budget companies about how they can help them to make money. And then when you register they are talking about non-commercial.
AdWords attractiveness rising... (Score:5, Funny)
Graceful Slashdotting (Score:5, Funny)
Currently Undergoing Maintenance
Google Analytics reporting is currently undergoing maintenance and will be available shortly. Your site traffic is being logged and you will be able to see the data after system maintenance has concluded.
Re:Graceful Slashdotting (Score:2, Funny)
i think that's one of the signs of the Apocalypse
get ready everybody...the end of the world is near
Death knell for Web Side Story (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Death knell for Web Side Story (Score:4, Interesting)
ostiguy
Re:Death knell for Web Side Story (Score:2)
But yes, when they roll out their commercial version, they will take a lot of business from web side story and others,
Re:Death knell for Web Side Story (Score:2)
Microsoft (Score:5, Funny)
Coming to you from a couple of years in the future...
Today Bill Gates released a statement "Yes, Google is currently number one in traffic analysis, but at Microsoft we think their service is really basic and we've got some amazing web analytics software in development that will blow Google's out of the water. It's coming out soon... Yes, I know I said we were going to crush Google in search a while ago and we didn't but we're definately going to crush them in Traffic Analysis. Really. Please believe me. Hey, don't walk away I'm still talking! Why doesn't anyone fear me any more..?"
Google Watch would love it... (Score:2)
Interesting tidbit in the TOS ... (Score:5, Informative)
You hereby grant to Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries a limited license to use Your trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names and other distinctive brand features ("Brand Features") in presentations, marketing materials, customer lists, and financial reports. Further, Unless You notify Google otherwise in writing, Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries retain the right to identify You as a valued customer and optionally issue a press release that, at a minimum, discloses You have licensed the Product and that the Product is Your preferred web analytics package.
Re:Interesting tidbit in the TOS ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Interesting tidbit in the TOS ... (Score:2)
Not a big deal (Score:2)
Man I wish I'd bought stock!!!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
No encryption here? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No encryption here? (Score:4, Informative)
Why not integrate with Adsense? (Score:2)
Would it not make a lot of sense to integrate it with Ad Sense - whose users already have Google javascripts on their pages?
So nu? (Score:2, Insightful)
No access to base domain (Score:3, Interesting)
Huh... and I'm mildly curious as to whether anyone else can register the URL of users.adelphia.net.
Google is Freakin Smart (Score:3, Insightful)
Google is web-omnipresent
Anyone else concerned about Google? (Score:3, Insightful)
Google is everywhere it seems, collecting data. Does this concern anyone else besides me? I use gmail and I notice that Google search now recognizes me. I can log out, but then I'm out of gmail as well. I've been doing more searching on A9 as a result. Of course, searching A9 means Amazon knows what I'm looking for, but at least I get a discount.
But really, is Google getting to be too pervasive? It seems their future plans are really ambitious. Sure, the company's motto may be "do no evil" but that's not necessarily the motto of every employee there. Maybe I'm just paranoid...
We're upgrading accounts. (Score:2)
We're upgrading accounts. Please come back later.
Thanks for stopping by. We are currently migrating existing customers to the newly improved Google Analytics service. This process will be completed later this afternoon. Please come back then to sign up for Google Analytics.
To every slashdoter, please be nice, wait for your turn
Re:warning to Slashdot (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Site down already? (Score:2, Funny)
I had to get someone to translate it for me.
Re:Flash based? (Score:2)
What about those of us who don't use Flash? Why use Flash? Wouldn't it be just as easy to generate a table showing the same information?
Think of the target audience for this product: managers and marketing people. They drool over shiny graphs, and have certainly got flash installed.
I suppose they will provide hard numbers for the geeks and the financial people too, though I'm not sure about tha
Re:*adds google-analytics.com to his hostperm.1* (Score:4, Funny)
I know this is horribly wrong, but apparently i'm dyslexic... i read "hostperm" as "hotsperm".
um... DOH! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:um... DOH! (Score:2)
Re:Privacy? (Score:2, Funny)
Slow down cowboy! - Shaddup, slashhash.
Re:Yeah, I know: Pedantic (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Have anyone read EULA for this tool? (Score:3, Interesting)
The second string (q,p,q,query), is probably the var
Re:Have anyone read EULA for this tool? (Score:2, Informative)
There is nothing odd about this. These are the parameters the major search engines use to determine the keywords you searched for. Example:
This is a standard item that web analytic software looks for so that it can tell you what keywords, and what search engines people used to find your site.
Re:Have anyone read EULA for this tool? (Score:4, Informative)
Google and MSN use q=search+terms+here in the referer, aol query=me+too, yahoo p=small+green+vegetable
This is no more than Google/Urchin (UCTM Urchin Capaign Tracking Module - We're Urchin software users at work) looking into the referer in the same way that your log analyser would.
Of course it means that they now have the ability to see what other people are searching for on other search engines and track people's search engine usage.
Re:Design of site (Score:2)
"We've tripled our spend on search-based advertising, and as a result, increased our ROI by 188 percent."
Jeff Saville
Marketing Manager
From http://www.google.com/analytics/case_study_deckers
Re:Design of site (Score:2)
> From the google slightly-childish look, to big bold
> buzzwords displayed in a sans-serif font
WTF is wrong with this font? Design like design... It is for sure targeted at marketing staff and so on. Not because marketing staff are morons but because marketing staff does marketing. And IT staff does IT. And marketing staff does not do IT not because they are morons but because it is perhaps something else than IT? Something more social?
I'am sysad