On Monday, November 14, Google announced that it would make its Web analytics service available to Google account holders for free. Google acquired the San Diego based Urchin Web Analytics in March and has up until recently continued to use the Urchin name. Urchin’s products were offered at the price of $495 per month, which was subsequently reduced by Google to $199 per month. Along with the new price of $0, Google has renamed the Urchin service “Google Analytics” and has made it available in 16 languages.
According to Paul Muret, engineering director at Google and one of the founders of Urchin, Google Analytics will provide reports to Web site owners that will allow them to see where their visitors come from, which pages are receiving the most views, which links on the site get the most traffic, how long visitors remain on the site, which products sold on the site are being bought, and where visitors decide to break off a purchase in the multistep checkout process.
Google Analytics also includes a feature that automatically imports the cost data for ROI reports into the program, which will allow advertisers to see how much they are paying for keywords compared to how much they are earning from them. It will be integrated with Google AdWords and will run on the same infrastructure as the Google search engine.
This move puts Google in strong position against competition that includes WebTrends, Site Meter, WebSideStory, and Coremetrics.
Eric Peterson, a senior analyst at JupiterResearch, said, “This has the potential to be a pretty big deal. They made the acquisition earlier this year and are trying to think of good ways to take advantage of it. It is probably a no-brainer.”
However, Marketing VP for analytics firm ClickTracks Michael Stebbins confidently stated, “Google is the rising tide that raises all the web analytics ships. The announcement to offer free analytics is a great validation of our market. We're thrilled they are opening the market's eyes to what web analytics can do today. At the same time, we need to put it in perspective: when Google offered Blogger it did not put other blogger platforms out of business. When the tide levels out, the web analytics tools that provide the most value for marketers will be the ones that thrive.”
Despite the seemingly cutthroat competitive nature of the move, Google insists that the free analytics services offer has nothing to do with taking out competitors and everything to do with enhancing the Web experience.
Richard Holden, director of product management at Google, said “Our objective is to take what are extremely powerful tools and make sure all advertisers have access to them to make a better Web experience.”
Regardless of these claims of innocuous intent, Google Analytics puts Google in direct contention with other analytics firms, not to mention Microsoft. Microsoft offers analytics in its AdCenter keyword ad campaign tool, which is in beta testing in Singapore and France. AdCenter will be in direct competition with Google AdWords, though AdCenter will provide more specific information about Web users, including their age, gender, and ZIP code.
Google’s announcement comes just a few days after e-mails sent to executives at Microsoft by Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie were leaked onto the Web. The emails conveyed apprehension with the notion that Microsoft was not in a particularly strong position with regard to ad-financed services offered on the Internet.
Sources:
http://www.digitalmediaasia.com/default.asp?
ArticleID=11286
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/
wpn-60-20051115AnalyticsFirmsRespondToGoogle.html
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/
content/nov2005/tc20051115_111104.htm
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-
5947581.html
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