Google Analytics released

November 14, 2005 8:43 AM

Google Analytics Yesterday evening Google released Google Analytics - a free Google-hosted web tracking and measurement tool, based on Urchin (which Google purchased earlier this year). Can't see Microsoft or eBay using the service, and I found it rather slow to use, but worth giving it a try...
posted by runkelfinker (38 comments total)

Oh boy! Another google post. This means we will have a thread full of "Google stay good!" and "Pepsi Blue!" and "Google is love!" and "Oh boy! Another Google Post"
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:46 AM on November 14, 2005

I figure the slowness is due to them being hammered with new signups today. Early this morning I had no problem signing up or adding four of my sites for tracking.
posted by mrbill at 8:47 AM on November 14, 2005

Google stay good!
posted by odinsdream at 8:48 AM on November 14, 2005

diggfilter
posted by yoga at 8:53 AM on November 14, 2005

Obviously support is going to be pretty non-existent, and most enterprises are going to be unwilling to trust Google with their web usage data, but I think it's significant in that it will introduce a much wider audience (inc. the blogosphere) to the black art of web analytics. Wonder what will happen to Urchin's existing customers (and their support contracts) though?
posted by runkelfinker at 9:06 AM on November 14, 2005

Wonder what will happen to Urchin's existing customers (and their support contracts) though?

It's only free for sites with less than 5M pageviews/month, or AdWords customers. Anybody else can still buy Urchin 5.
posted by mrbill at 9:10 AM on November 14, 2005

I think it's pretty clear that they're interested in getting their smaller customers (blogs, small companies), who today probably don't do any real analytics, involved. The more they get people using Google to manage their analytics, the more interactive the AdWords component becomes. More AdWords, is more revenue for Google.

Since Google only pays on clicks for the words, they want those to be as focused, targeted and accurate as possible. This increases the value to the end customer, but also the value to Google. In addition, it brings the whole mechanical turk solution to bare, whereby the thousands of people using Google Analytics help refine a lot of bits and pieces in the rest of the Google system in ways that no algorithm can ever do.
posted by petrilli at 9:23 AM on November 14, 2005

I think free for >5m pvs/month would appeal to a lot of non-profits and small companies.
posted by carter at 9:29 AM on November 14, 2005

One part of what petrilli is talking about runs into the essential conundrum google is facing. Their main business depends on 2 things, accurate search results and people clicking on ads. Those things are starting to become less compatible.
posted by cell divide at 9:41 AM on November 14, 2005

Damn it's slow. And I still haven't figured out whether it will work even if I don't control the home page of my web site.
posted by grouse at 9:55 AM on November 14, 2005

Heh. I signed up and got

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.

in place of the User Agreement. When I clicked thru I got the real User Agreement, though.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:55 AM on November 14, 2005

runkelfinker, I think much of the blogosphere is already hip to web analytics, thanks to Shaun Inman's Mint software, and Adaptive Path's soon-to-be-released analytics package. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on Mint's popularity (Mint is not free).
posted by dvdgee at 9:58 AM on November 14, 2005

Huh? But when I click "Create New Account" on that, nothing happens. What gives?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:02 AM on November 14, 2005

I'm testing Measure Map already, and it seems more geared towards blogs than "normal" web sites so far.
posted by mrbill at 10:18 AM on November 14, 2005

Google released something new. I have never seen anything better on the web. Truly an astounding Metafilter moment.
posted by pieoverdone at 10:37 AM on November 14, 2005

HURF DURF GOOGLEFILTER
posted by grouse at 11:00 AM on November 14, 2005

Wow, the copy on the site is so incredibly corporate-buzzwordhead business english. Minimize wasted PPC spend! Track campaign ROI! Increase conversions! ... bluh.
posted by blacklite at 11:10 AM on November 14, 2005

i hate google! they are so stupid!
posted by Satapher at 11:14 AM on November 14, 2005

Well, I think it's a great thing for a small fry like me. I run an independent music website and could use something better than awstats to see how people are plowing through my site's content, where they're from, etc...

Why's everyone get so pissed when someone posts about a new google product anyway? It's generally interesting and good news. I'm still being wowed by new things people are doing with the google maps api...
posted by twiggy at 11:37 AM on November 14, 2005

And it's usually free as well, as opposed to AppleFilter.
posted by grouse at 11:42 AM on November 14, 2005

pieoverdone, sorry you didn't like it, I guess I thought it was best of the web [measurement].
posted by runkelfinker at 12:17 PM on November 14, 2005

And I still haven't figured out whether it will work even if I don't control the home page of my web site.

Don't think it will. You have to add their javascript to every page you want to measure.
posted by smackfu at 12:31 PM on November 14, 2005

It's also worth mentioning that a significant chunk of Google's current business plan is focused on keeping its stock price inflated via a constant stream of "new! exciting! product!" announcements. It just makes sense, really. There was an interesting Marketwatch commentary from last February that discussed this kind of "innovation," in which companies rush out products (video yellow pages is a fave example) before it's clear there's much, if any, consumer demand for them:

When company innovation is driven by the desire to keep up with rivals -- and high investor expectations -- rather than what consumers need and demand, it's an invitation to trouble...

You're probably saying, "Shouldn't companies innovate?" Sure, I'm all for innovation. But investors shouldn't be basing growth trajectories on products and services that are ahead of their time. Such new services may require a lot of consumer education to persuade buyers that any of this stuff is even remotely necessary.

[...] it appears to me that many companies -- in their effort to keep up their expected growth trajectory -- are throwing service upon service at consumers. Some of these services are merely slight improvements over what's already out there. Some are services that consumers aren't even aware they need.

[Worth repeating]
posted by mediareport at 1:42 PM on November 14, 2005

Where does this leave the much-anticipated but still only part-open Measure Map?
posted by brownpau at 2:05 PM on November 14, 2005

I signed up at 2:00 AM last night, and it's been well over 12 hours now, and it still says I have to wait 12 hours to see the updated stats.
posted by riffola at 2:24 PM on November 14, 2005

OK, I'm always up for new software to track my blog's 12 visitors, so I added the code to my site, and then I sign back in to Google Analytic and get a 404 error. Nice one Google! It's not even a pretty 404.
posted by chill at 3:17 PM on November 14, 2005

Ditto on the 12 hours. It's been ~26 hours now for me.
posted by waldo at 11:14 AM on November 15, 2005

A day and a half later, I still see "Your first reports will be ready within twelve hours."
posted by letitrain at 6:15 PM on November 15, 2005

Beta rocks. About 36 hours, no analyticalizing.
posted by obfusciatrist at 7:09 PM on November 15, 2005

I still haven't figured out whether it will work even if I don't control the home page of my web site.

Update: it does. I think it is pretty cool, and would be very useful if I had a commercial web site.
posted by grouse at 4:32 AM on November 16, 2005

Three days later, still "Your first reports will be ready within twelve hours."
posted by letitrain at 12:52 PM on November 17, 2005

Same here, letitrain.
posted by dmd at 6:11 PM on November 17, 2005

I sent in a support request, since several news reports say "everyone is up and running now." Not everyone!
posted by letitrain at 9:44 AM on November 18, 2005

I have no results either. I am positive the code is in correctly. 36 hours and counting.
posted by cell divide at 12:42 PM on November 18, 2005

Ditto.
posted by Imperfect at 1:41 PM on November 18, 2005

I submitted a support request via the web form, and for my troubles got an postmaster reply from Mail Delivery Subsystem saying my mail to Neotonics had bounced.
posted by dmd at 3:18 PM on November 18, 2005

5 days and no results.

(In case you're wondering, after my troubles mentioned upthread I managed to complete the sign-up process and paste the code in the same day after all.)
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:16 AM on November 19, 2005

Yay! I gots data. But what does it all mean? Pie charts I understand (and find culinarily appealing), but stuff like "Goals & Funnel Process" makes my brain hurt. Ow.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:19 AM on November 26, 2005