Now that Eric has posted about this in the Web Analytics Yahoo Groups, I can share with you that the next 14th of September, during our Web Analytics Day, Ian Thomas, responsible of the Microsoft Gatineau project, will be doing the first public demo of the Bêta version of Gatineau.
If you’re in the Web Analytics Industry, you already know about Gatineau as many Blogs (including ours) have been talking about this product these past months. If you’re not familiar with it, Gatineau is the future FREE Web Analytics tool of Microsoft. So a competitor of Google Analytics.
Why is it interesting? Because it’s not just another WA tool, it’s a product with at least one feaure that I haven’t seen on any other Web Analytics tool, even the most expensive ones: Demographic data. Yest that’s right. Did you ever wondered what was the gender proportion of your visitors? What age they heve? Well, in the near future you will be able to answer those questions and more thanks to Gatineau. It’s the perfect complement of traditional Web Analytics features that usually tell you the behaviour. Thanks to Gatineau, you will be able to learn a little bit more about your audience 😉
I guess that you have understood that this will be very valuable to advertisers and of course Media Buying Agencies.
So don’t miss this unique opportunity to be the first worldwide to attend a demo of Gatineau! Register today as seats are limited! And in the meantime, you can learn a little bit more about how they gather Demographic data on Ian’s Blog.
See you at our next Web Analytics Day,
René
OX2 Web Analytics Blog 
August 30, 2007 at 6:34 pm
demographic data … don’t you think it is another bloody hype ??
where will they find these data, in some kind of outdated and specifically north american database ?
August 30, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Hi Jip,
I don’t think it will be only a hype. I’ve seen the product in San Francisco a few months ago.
To answer your question regarding where the data comes from, let me quote Ian:
“Questions are already being asked on Dave’s blog about where we get this data from; the answer is that we do get this information from users’ Live ID (formerly known as Microsoft Passport) profiles, but I would stress that we get this information anonymously, and there is no use of PII (Personally Identifiable Information, such as name or e-mail address) in the product.”
He promissed to post more information shortly, so keep watching his blog or if you have the opportunity join un on the 14th and you will be able to ask him directly 😉
Kind Regards,
René
August 31, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Are there people out there not having installed Microsoft Passport?
Are we going to be forced to mention our gender, age, buying habits, consumer behaviours,… as Microsoft users or will MS allow me to uncheck the “send my consumer details to Gatineau please” option somewhere?
Where does Gatineau stop and where is exactly the “anonymous” border located.
I would like analytics to serve me as an end-consumer in a smart way, i.e. give the websites that I think deserve it, the necessary details so that I receive added-value info in my mailbox – no problem with that. But demographic data to be gathered on the Internet is not something that I expect to allow (if I can…) as a basic consumer. Advertisers and media buying agencies will indeed think differently.
September 3, 2007 at 5:49 pm
[…] Thomas wird am 14. September auf dem Web Analytics Day von OX2 in Brüssel die erste Beta-Demo von Microsofts Gatineau vorstellen. Im Vorfeld hat er sich mit den […]