Free Analytics from Google

Looks like Google’s making good use of their acquisition of Urchin. Like Picasa and Keyhole, Google is turning acquired products into products of their own by applying a Google flavor and then reducing the price (because they can). And having the name of Google behind it is likely to make the new Google Analytics one of the most popular statistics sites around. In fact, when I signed up today, I went to add it to my Google Forums. Much to my surprise, it was already there! (But under a different account.) Presumably, Darren (the other administrator) signed up and added the code.

Google is to launch a free web analytics service that measures the effectiveness of websites and online marketing campaigns. Google Analytics will allow customers of its AdWords service to see exactly how visitors interact with their website and how their advertising campaigns are faring. The hosted service will be available in English and 16 other languages, and uses technology from San Diego-based Urchin, which Google acquired in March. The proposal of a free service is likely to cause ripples in the web analytics business. . . Three summary views are available for executives, webmasters and marketing officials. Julian Smith, online advertising analyst at JupiterResearch, said: “This is good news for Google and for its small to medium advertisers which so far have found it hard to gain good analytics on their advertising campaigns. It will help them become more sophisticated in their approach to online campaigns.” Microsoft includes analytics in its adCenter keyword ad campaign tool, which will compete with Google AdWords. AdCenter is in beta testing in France and Singapore. Key competitors in the analytics field are WebSideStory, Coremetrics, and Webtrends.

via vnunet