Slashdot Mirror
Google Launches Web Traffic Analysis Service
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.
Seems it got /.ed before it even went live
Slashdot! See, you don't need to be Google to do this.
GAS.... as in more hot-air from the friendly neighborhood Googledot.
Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.
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?
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.
Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.
When I heard that they had purchased Urchin back in March I was wondering how long it would be before they came out with a service like this. I'm sure this will be a lot better than a lot of those free "stat counter" services out there.
Bradley Holt
Yes, yes, I'm an idiot. I should have RFA...
What's this all about? How did M$ infect my daily dosage of Slasdot/Google news?
Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.
Ok, so the service works by adding a snippet of code into your web-pages. Then google registers when someone arrives on that page, where he came from, and lots of other data. So google watches everything, it knows what kind of people visits your site and thus knows a lot both about the site and about the visitors.
I know google has always been concerned about "legitimate" use of their data, but this is somehow frightening...
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.
Look, that's why there's rules, understand? So that you think before you break 'em. (Terry Pratchett)
Registrars especially have pushed gimmicky "features" on domain buyers that people could otherwise get with a phonecall to their ISP or typing apt-get install webalizer. As far as tracking the way people "interact" on your site, without a google ad on every page or some script I don't see how they can track user behavior on the site (IE which paths through the site are most popular) beyond timing the first and last load of a page with an ad on it. OTOH most of these potential customers or users of this feature don't have my skills. It just raises the whole issue of whether or not google's still a strong buy at 393/share.
This looks like google is relying less and less on their PageRank algorithm and more and more on data that they spy from users.
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.
If Google can tell how people react to a site, then it could use the data to affect pagerank. Sites that people bail from would lose pagerank and sites that people stay in and explore would gain page rank. Of course, Google would need some scheme for filtering out scam data where an SEO tries to make their site look interesting or make a competitor site look uninteresting by faking the behavior of visitors.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Since this service tracks "how users got to your site", I wonder if it includes filters to combat referer spaming. Most web statistics packages (such as webalizer and awstats) are still easy targets.
Anybody have the definitive list of tech/geek/info websites out there? I am occasionally hearing about interesting sits through this fashion (complaining that they beat /. to the punch) and I always enjoy the site after browsing it.. but I'd like the end all, be all list please...
Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.
must have key to join channel! GG
Those of you that don't use AdWords can still use Analytics by adding a simple javascript snippet to your web site.
Gee, that's just what I need, another one of those broken odometers on my pages.
So now Google can read my e-mail, track my searches, track my social network, and track which websites I go to with one cookie? All of these were opt-in until this one. Interesting...
The more you know, the less you understand.
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!
Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.
Don't be ridiculous... Being the first site to post a story is not what Slashdot is about. Its about the comments posted on the story by the users. Great stuff like the "In Soviet Russia" jokes, the "5. Profit!" responses, the Open Source fanatics with their twisted mentality, the Microsoft-haters with their ridiculous love for Linux, the Apple-bashers who don't know what they are talking about.... :)
I'm your huckleberry
Well this should be interesting. For years I used NedStat Basic (now WebStats4U, what a lame name). Anyhow, this last September they changed their name and quietly changed their TOS. The TOS changs were mentioned in small type at the bottom of an email announcing the 'exciting' changes. The biggest change is they now had the right to put pop-ups and other crap-tastic forms of advertising on your site.
NedStat always seemed to be one of the better free analytic sites out there, with them starting to pup pop-ups on sites, I'd imagine a lot of people will happily switch away from them. And since one of the choices is Google, I'd imagine a lot will switch to Google.
Is it just me, or is Google getting just slightly too ubiquitous? It really scares me across just how large a part of my online activities they can track me, and "do no evil" stands very little chance when faced with the Homeland Security goons. Lcukily there's SeaMonkey/Firefox/Mozilla: *adds the following line to his hostperm.1 file* host script 2 google-analytics.com (note that the spaces between those strings have to be tabs)
If you have a Google ad on your page you are already giving them all this information.
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.
Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.
I'm sure they are going to start charging for this service in the future if you are a company.
How to say politely that your website is slashdotted?
"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."
No sig for now.
Right after Microsoft leaked that memo where they're going to try enter the online ad market due to problems with their business strategies, Google pulls a rabbit out their hat to raise their AdWords attractiveness to new heights... Establishing their foothold further, before MS have even got their steam up. I can already hear things crashing in Ballmer's office. :-p
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
It worked for me
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
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?
Flash-rendered graphs are provided with each data collection so that you can get a quick visual overview.
See my previous question above.
Seems like Flash is the new blink tag.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Google Analytics
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.
I tried to sign up for it, only to have the site crash on me halfway through.
This is the end of Web Side Story and similar analytics tools as we know it. Obviously webmasters will flock to Google's free (and probably superior) tools. Google simply takes the $400m market and redistributes the money back to publishers. Amazing.
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..?"
I'm sure GoogleWatch loves this latest development: they now have to fear Google's stastics-gathering scripts on every page, in addition to the regular regimen of Google ads. I suppose a simple AdBlock filter with wildcards would work on the scripts readily enough, though.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Doesn't it strike anyone else that Google might have a conflict of interest in giving you unbiased analytics? Having a company who's claim to fame is directing visitors to sites on the internet (for a fee) might be inclined to bias analytic reports such that "your results were so much better after you paid for our ad ranking service." Paranoia?
It's a Totally Free Service!!
(You just have to pay Google if you DON'T want them to track every little thing about you.)
Personal Use Only The Google Services are made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. You may not use the Google Services to sell a product or service, or to increase traffic to your Web site for commercial reasons, such as advertising sales. You may not take the results from a Google search and reformat and display them, or mirror the Google home page or results pages on your Web site. You may not "meta-search" Google. If you want to make commercial use of the Google Services, you must enter into an agreement with Google to do so in advance. Please contact us for more information.
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.
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
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, or link to but misleadingly) think; indeed, we have been blocking all referrals from DMOZ with a 403 since they rejected an update request that by their editor's own admission was in both their readers' interests and ours.
Moreover, whether or not you're listed on DMOZ seems to have an absurd effect on your site's PageRank. It would be a welcome change for Google to construct their index independently, using only their own analysis of relevant factors directly related to the site in question, rather than relying on outside sources with dubious ethics.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
User:Bill Gates
Assessment:You are a power hungry, closed minded, egotistical b@stard. You ability to view the world without glasses which highlight you as the centre of all things is impaired. You goal is to dominate the world with substandard products. If it weren't for the legality of such things, you'd bomb the houses of every open source developer on the planet. You are also keen on donkies and young monkies dressed in bondage ware.
And for all of you that have spent time and money re-writing your web site to use shiny new AJAX technology.. No more pages.. Only one hit it the google log.
I sure hope Google has a way toto get this to work that isn't too hard to integrate..
This is honestly going to rock the world of web analytics. I've been dealing with some of the major vendors lately, this move will herald some serious changes in how they do business. I'm still struggling to understand the implications!!!
My tech blog
HEHE!
I noticed this the other day. Blogger was running a little sluggish over my internet connection. One of the messages at the bottom was something about analytics-google.com. I checked it out but it gave me a Google splashed timed out message. I figured they were up to something like this when I noticed that. I figured they had already started to track movement on Blogger just because they can. I only hoped they would allow me to track it too. Just wait until they tie it into the search history.
Gmail will force you to use https but if you want to sign in to Google Analytics, you provide the same credentials with no encryption.
"Analytics is also built to integrate with AdWords if you are already utilizing that service."
Doesn't 'utilizing' mean using a tool for something other than it's intended purpose, i.e. "I utilised a screwdriver to prop the window open"?
Shouldn't the word be using?
C17H21NO4
In other news, Google has announced that they are planning to have a service for each word in the English dictionary by mid 2007. Google Myxomatosis is on its way!
Visiting the signup pages displays "Google Anal" in your Firefox browser tab.
Just seeing first few lines of their javascrip seems that it is aimed at something different than to allow webmasters see what is happening on their websites. See: // set campaign tracking module (1=on|0=off)
...
var _uctm=1;
_uOsr[0]="google"; _uOkw[0]="q";
_uOsr[1]="yahoo"; _uOkw[1]="p";
_uOsr[2]="msn"; _uOkw[2]="q";
_uOsr[3]="aol"; _uOkw[3]="query";
These are just variables and I didn't walk through code but it warns me.
Have anyone read EULA for this tool?
Wow, their's a lot of venom in there isn't there? Which one of your puppies did Mr. Gates run over yesterday? Yeah I don't like his company's Cooperate practices, but I'd say most of your assessment would require at least having the chance to meet with the guy face to face. All you know of him is from press releases, and the lovingly formed opinions of him posted here on slashdot. Like I said I'm not a huge fan of MS, but Billy G. and the company are two separate entities. I'm a different person at the office, why do you think he isn't?
-manno
You can search all the geek/tech/whatever boards & forums there, limit by category if you choose, and get alerts by email(free) and jabber(pay)..
Mirror?
OK so i is integrated with Ad Words.
Would it not make a lot of sense to integrate it with Ad Sense - whose users already have Google javascripts on their pages?
So don't use Google you paranoid muppet! There's a whole Internet of alternatives out there.
Deleted
Yahoo's had this service ever since they bought out Overture -- and yes, it's also free if you're a big enough advertiser to make it worthwhile. And yes, it adds a javascript snippet to the advertisers' websites. You've probably visited hundreds of these sites already without knowing they were collecting third-party data. Sheesh. Add "Google" to any news story and all the world goes nuts. Personally, I'd wait until Google work out all the bugs before relying on it. It's still GIGO even when it's Google.
Anyone notice the shift in the design of this site? From the google slightly-childish look, to big bold buzzwords displayed in a sans-serif font:
i ty.html
http://www.google.com/analytics/conversionunivers
'Learn. Explore. Profit'
They're obviously targeting morons who find that kind of sentence alluring (and need monotone sans-serif font design sexy) - worried they can just sell anal-ytics on the back of the google brand.
Nothing costs nothing
Huh... and I'm mildly curious as to whether anyone else can register the URL of users.adelphia.net.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
As much as I despise him, I have to rate him as being someone for whom "it's more than just a job". Yes, I 'REALLY' do rate him for that. I hate 9-5'ers in IT. It's a domain for the passionate and I have no time for those who punch-clock. Unfortunately, all that work of his is built on a slushy foundation of dog poop.
Should I surprise you further? I actually rate MS higher than I rate the great overlord himself. MS Research, being a prime example of computational Mecca. I know MS guys, and I think that with a good shuffle up from all sides, a little revolution, some sound engineering and architectural practices and power-back-to-the-technologically-informed, you could have a pretty hot company, producing good software - and all without 'my' condemnation. It'll never happen. They have the talent pool; the only problem is that they are not utilising it.
That said, I still fart in the general direction of all things Windoze. You can't really be that high up the food chain and not expect to have cheap shots made at your expense. He does good philanthropic work (although it's expected for people in that income bracket), but his general attitude is just plain bad for the future of development, IT and the world in general.
Those with "Site Under Maintenance" - try using IE (if available)... worked for me.
Google confirms it.
...in another post.
picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
I am amazed time and again as Google finds segments in the market and exploits them. Now they are after web analysis, and not only do they provide a service, but they gain insight into how their competitors send traffic to your site. This is even better than just hosting, as you will get many people and companies that pay for hosting elsewhere, but will use GA to analyze traffic/logs.
Google is web-omnipresent
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...
When I read that it was modded +2 Interesting. What sort of sick mind would do that? ONLY +2?!
Wow, this seems like an interesting service. Knowing how Google is, they probably thought of everything. Look forward to using it!
[%] Cingular Ringtones
This isn't that big of a deal. I don't like the inclusion of "marketing materials", but otherwise this is pretty much limited to the types of use most software developers reserve from their end users, IMO.
I got the Site under Maintenance for two hours. I could finaly subscribe. Now I got this message:
;)
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
Million Dollar Screenshot
5. Profit!
Wow, you really sound nutty. Here's a summary of what you just said:
1) Bill gates wrote something a long time ago, that means now hes a bad man.
2) I have no life outide my job, and I hate people that do, because they aren't as professional as me. However, I'm unprofessional enough to use dog-poop in a sentence.
3) I like MS research, and also like to be condescending. I think MS would be better with IT guys as managers. (nevermind Bill Gates himself is/was an IT guy)
4) I think Bill Gates has a bad attitude, nevermind that hes donating millions to stop aids in africa. I think i am better than he is, and yet I still use the word "fart" and the L33+ spelling of Windows, as if I was in third grade, or really wished I was back there.
So, how does it feel to be chided by an anonymous coward?
... Netcraft is dying!
I am Spartacus
No Sane webmaster? If you'd ever used any enterprise level analytics before other than the hit counter .gif on your geocites page you'd know that this is how most of the best web-site analytics engines work (Hitbox/HBX Analytics for one). Google isn't breaking new ground here. Yes, you need to be able to trust companies that you partner with. Shocker, I know.
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.
"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."
Kaetemi
I HEART HUCKABEES'S!
I have build something similar one or two years ago.
It's quite easy to do: Use Javascript to install an onclick handler that sets a cookie with the click-coordinates. On the server-side you need to check the cookie and the referrer and store url and coordinates in a database. It's best to limit this to just one browser, ie. the much hated internet explorer 6 (because of slight differences in positioning algorithms). Also, if you have a high traffic site, you might only want to store a small percentage of these tuples.
To diplay the click-information for a web page simply cumulate all click in a square of a certain size (ie. 20) and draw a small rectangle filled with a colour corresponding to the number of clicks.
It really helped us to identify some unused/crappy navigation on our website.
Many people get along just fine knowing only English, or only their own language for that matter. What other language do you think is mandatory nowadays? It depends where you live, and in many places there is no need to know another language. Why should someone living in Kansas bother to learn a language they will never use?
now you don't even have to interpret (or keep) your own apache logs... google makes life easier once again!!!
Get your torrents...
I came up with the great idea - or that is taking an existing idea and making it better, and now I guess it's pretty much dead. There are about 15 online web traffic analyzers (the ones that work in your header tags, not the actual log file analysis) ranging from free cheapies all the way up to urchin (as we used to know it) I spent the last two months writing an indepth analyzer of my own and was just about to release it. I wasn't planning on making a living off of it, just a few bucks here or there. But now, I guess I can kiss my idea goodbye. Has anyone thought of the affect this is going to have? I'm sure a lot of people are going to lose their jobs/incomes and more. I know there has already been mention of the power google is going to have over individual websites via the javascript include not to mention the powerful data they are going to be collecting. I guess what my question is, can you guys thnk of a market that my software, or that is all of the lower end/partially free log analyzers can still tap into? Or is it a lost cause? Do you think google will always keep the Urchin code free?
when you click on the question: Who will have access to my Google Analytics data?
/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=26786&hl=e n_US was not found on this server.
you receive: The requested URL
Does this means that everyone trying to see your stats will get a fake 404?
This is an interesting point. Getting people where they want to go is important. Many people accepted Google and have stuck to it for several years now. Google has been the public transportation of the internet. Google seems to find that Diversifying and offering great utilities, such as google earth, gmail, etc. is a great benefit to the world and themselves. The innovation has been exciting users and stock holders. Someone mentioned before that $393 is still supposed to be a strong buy? Deeper than a conflict of interest. The idea is genius and obviously it is opt-in. But a monopoly like this can spell disaster for online communities, and reap major benefits for others. But how is this different than any other google ranking tool. Beware of the future of the internet that may be regulated. Both for content and for income. Think the IRS of the internet. Doing Business With Google
There is plenty of ways you can compete. First right now Google Analytics doesn't work :(
Second you can provide more features (for example there is no display by city in GA)
Third you can do it better (no flash, java, png only, ...)
But the main point is you could sell the software and not the service. For a lot of websites, GA is not an option because the javascript is from outside and by so insecure.
You can not compete with PageRank and AdWords but IIRC Alexa has an offer for the data they collect.
Now, I don't know if this business is viable but there is still some space for a new offer.
Million Dollar Screenshot
You can actually block Google Analytics from tracking your visits by adding a line to your Windows Hosts file.- analytics-from-tracking.html
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/11/prevent-google
Nope. Not a single other person has thought this before.
Especially no one on Slashdot. Those thousands of other posts you think you might have perhaps seen actually don't exist.
We also like Linux, but you wouldn't know it due to the lack of posts on that subject as well.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
I'm hearing from a lot of people that this service is going at a snail's pace, a friend is waiting for his data 25 hours after he requested it and the system told him it would be ready in 12.
Will this go down in history as the day Google got slashdotted? :P
Try Scroogle. http://www.scroogle.org/ Why? http://www.scroogle.org/gscrape.html Alternately, use Clusty, a metasearch http://www.clusty.com/ Clusty even has a plugin for your Mozilla/Firefox search box http://clusty.com/toolbar/mozilla
^^
I'm trying to gather some quick test data for some Google Analytics reports. It would be appreciated if you could click this link, you don't even have to read it! http://www.sawthetableleg.com/
Thanks guys
Hmmm...you could still make a living out of your analyzer. I'd try releasing it under GPL, build a community around it, create modules and charge for them, or simply follow a business model like sugarcrm.com Just my 2 cents... Anyhow, Google is becoming like Walmart...bankrupting small businesses. Yet, somehow the society seems to benefit...
Best Web Hosting Provider -- web host reviews from a nerd.
Just wondering, if someone has actually measured if the script that's added slows the loading of a page?
Best Web Hosting Provider -- web host reviews from a nerd.
In Soviet Googalia, you get Craigslist laid!
^^
It's now seven (yes 7) days since I added the tracking code and it still isn't presenting any data. Marvellous! I still get "Tracking for your website has not yet been validated".