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Google Buys Urchin Web Analytics
sho222 writes "Business Week, BMP Today, and others are reporting that Google agreed late Monday to aqcuire Urchin Software Corporation. Urchin boasts that their web analytics and marketing intelligence software is used by millions of sites worldwide and 20% of Fortune 500 companies. Google's VP of Product Management explains that, "This technology will be a valuable addition to Google's suite of advertising and publishing products." The deal is set to close in late April."
so now that google is getting big and scary, where the hell am i supposed to search at?
don't say a9, it sucks.
Soon nothing will escape Google's tentacly grasp.
I found this image on the website here.
;-)
Google had a decent stake for a while
So cheers to Google.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
...but capitalism makes excellent ones.
This is an excellent match. It makes perfect sense that a web advertising company would buy a web analytics company, and I can't wait to see the results show up in AdSense.
DBA? Software Engineer? My company is hiring! Click
I just hope that Google stays consumer and user-oriented instead of investing more time in arcane fields like traffic analysis, or the route IBM has gone, "e-solutions." This seems like a step in the wrong direction; it's not like Google is seeking to be recognised among high-profile companies....Google, isn't it time to start writing end-user software?
Take off every sig. For great justice.
However I worry about their rapid asscention into a computer gaint. With this purchase they add to their already impressive profile as an inovative technology leader. I'm sure MS looked much the same way back in the early 90s. I've been using yahoo more lately but their interface is far too confused to make me want to use them regualarly. Now repersents a time when google open to an attack from a well directed company who has the software to compete with them in the scearch market. Lets hope that google doesn't go monoply on us.
I've been singing the high praises of Urchin 6 (this is the promo piece) since I first saw it. Urchin 5 in and of itself is pretty addictive. The ROI tracking stuff and some of the other analyses that 6 provides will do wonders in terms of consolidating report generation and I suppose now AdSense and AdWords and things like that will be part of the package as well.
I for one, welcome our web analytics search data ROI overlords.
I Want To Believe
I know what you bought last summer. :p
I feel like a should be scared of how much influence and power Google is gaining - any corporation that size just HAS to evil, doesn't it? But they keep impressing me! Like Google Maps is 100x better than mapquest. They just keep rolling out great features, so I can't bring myself to fear them.
This makes perfect sense for Google. I would expect the Urchin software to begin "recommending" the use of a larger adsense/adwords campaign very soon, and that means a bigger war chest for Google.
I was lucky enough to use Urchin for a good year to 18 months when I was a customer of RackShack/Ev1Servers. I was given a free/cheap license as part of my server package and ran it, checking it religiously for its beautiful charts and stat counters.
When the SCO/ev1 scandal broke out, I got really emotional and cancelled my EV1 account that week.
I was soon back to Analog and Webalizer, both great and cheap tools, but none could ever compare. An Urchin license cost in the hundreds so I couldn't afford it.
I hope Google does the sensible thing (like they did for Keyhole) and make a good cheap version of this available for small time hobbyist web admins so I can return back to Urchin.
Peter Lynch, in his pop-investor books, talks about young companies who suddenly come into a lot of cash through an IPO and stop innovating and try to grow via purchases of ever-expanding diversity. He calls this deworsification when companies grow out of their expertise. This isn't always bad--a company needs to grow after all--but it can often be a sign of a company that isn't going to be innovating the same way. Now, it's not like google just went out and bought a fast-food franchise (although 'google burger' has a nice ring to it), but If I was a stock holder in google I might be looking closely at this strategy and start looking around for another innovative start-up whose valuation isn't so high and who is concentrating on a smaller array of products.
Not the universe; just Slashdot.
I'd venture that if you look at the bot referrer log for most sites, Googlebot is at or near the top most of the time. That's just a simple screenshot reflecting what's likely in a production environment.
As long as Google is acquiring like mad, maybe they should buy out listerine and rename it:
Guuuuuurgle.
yes, yes, yes,
more joke to come soon..........
Soundproofing Acoustics noise
I run a few websites on a managed dedicated server and one of the tools that we're offered is Urchin (version 5, I believe). I generally use awstats instead. Urchin is painfully slow to use and has the most horrible date-range system for reports that I've ever had the misfortune to use.
I wonder if Google will clean it up and make it run as smoothly as the main Google search page. It might not make me wince so much to use.
Just my opinion, of course. Your mileage may well vary.
picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
Of course there is only so much you can pull out of data, and many firms will get caught up in "analysis paralysis" and over-reliance on back-looking stats instead of risk taking on new ideas, but that realization will only come after billions have been spent chasing the dream of apparently being able to mind-read consumers.
This is the best web acquisition this year.
Featuring "The Giver" and "The Reciever".
http://www.gay-sex-access.com/
I know some webmasters have expressed their discomfort with Google's conversion tracking because Google gets a rough estimate on the ROI from Adwords campaigns. I wonder if they will have access to the data Urchin collects. If so this could put Google in control of some extraordinarly valuable data.
Business Voyeur
This can only make services like Adwords better. YES! NO MORE PSAs!
Silence is golden... and duct tape is silver.
Most people hate well run, successful companies. Examples are Walmart, Microsoft etc. Google for some reason is well liked by most people. It must be because it's free. Anyone have any ideas?
Which is what irritates me about all their products.
DEVONagent
DEVONthink
so shouty about the name.
Dr, Spock was a child psyclogist.
Mr. Spock was on Star-Drek.
Google for nerds. Google that matters.
I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
"Google, isn't it time to start writing end-user software?"
Well actually...no. Google is a services company. Software is a means to an end. Not the end. Plus don't forget that "end-user" has a broader definition than just "you", or "consumer". Companies are "end users" too.
Your uniqueness will be added to our own.
At least it was two years ago when I last used it. The numbers aren't reliable and doesn't have a good tool for building custom reports.
IMO, Nielson/Netratings is much better. It's the old RedSheriff system and is far better than any other reporting tool I've seen.
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
If its' as bad as you say, I'd send them an email. They, apparently, do read everything that they recieve, so its' worth a try.
You've had this occur on multiple computers (not just your regular one) I assume?
Hope that helps.
I can remember not so long ago when most of the X-[acquires/buys/takes over]-Y stories were almost always about Microsoft grabbing up some little company.
These days, however, it seems like Google's on the takeover shopping spree.
GET FREE APPLE STUFF!
...of course with GoogleMaps, GoogleSuggest, GMail, GoogleGroups and a host of other innovative best of class apps...I don't see Google sitting around picking their noses.
Google is creating kick ass products internally and buying best of breed when they see a good fit/missing expertise. Nothing wrong at all with this.
We are their product.
We buy nothing from Google, the advertizers pay Google, not us.
We are merely eyeballs to sell.
Google is becoming too big in too short of a period of time. Sure, Microsoft probably exploded just as fast, but look at where it's gotten them: They monopolize the OS and productivity market, using claims that open source is insecure and vulnerable to attacks and source poisoning.
Yes, there will always be a smaller, less popular alternative, but that doesn't do a whole lot for the person that sees advertisements for Google all over the place. Telling people to just use Google is very analogous to Windows being pushed in classrooms and retail centers.
Pardon me while I don my tin foil hat.
Google seems likely to make its Urchin-based tools available for free to its AdSense publishers and AdWords clients. Google's interest is in making ads more relevant, which in turn allows to to charge more for ads. That won't be happy news for search engine optimization (SEO) specialists who help site owners improve their visibility. If Google is offering user-friendly traffic analysis tools, are site owners likely to pay SEO firms? Some will, but this will make do-it-yourself search optimization much easier.
RichM
Data Center Knowledge
And Inktomi doesn't even get the URLs right. Their spider regularly tries to access URLs on my domain where the path contains elements from other sites - or sometimes the whole path is from another site. It's seriously broken...
Well it's actually not even terribly funny -- a little. But it definitely wasn't intended to be Interesting.
RP
Not only did Google buy Urchin, but WebTrends was spun out out NetIQ and Sane Solutions has begun to give away a free (as in beer) version of NetTracker.
It looks like google's hosting rumors are back on after this acquisition.
in Soviet Russia "web analyses you!", not "analytics webs you"! Sheesh.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
"I feel like a should be scared of how much influence and power Google is gaining "
Why are you scared of what you gave them?
"They just keep rolling out great features, so I can't bring myself to fear them."
Do you want to fear them?