Archive for October, 2007

How will the Web Analytics Industry evolve with Omniture as the green giant?

October 31, 2007

After the acquisition of Visual Sciences, we all wonder how Web Analytics vendors will react. So let’s get back to the different vendors out there and try to take a look at the future.

If we take the latest Forrester Research regarding Web Analytics that Megan Burns wrote a few months ago, which you can download here at Unica’s website, we find the main Web Analytics vendors well represented. Here’s a graph that sums up Megan’s findings:

forrester_wa_wave_q3_2007.jpg

Based on this, on the leaders corner we will have after this merger: Omniture, WebTrends, Unica and Coremetrics. But other players need to be followed as ClickTracks, IndexTools, of course the free tools as Google Analytics and the coming Gatineau and let’s not forget the local players such as Nedstat (The Netherlands) or Xiti (France).

So Omniture is becoming the Web Analytics green giant, will the others be able to compete and how? (more…)

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Posted in Gatineau, Google Analytics, IndexTools, Omniture, Thoughts and Ideas, Unica, Visual Sciences, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News, WebTrends | 2 Comments »

Tracking web lift in retail cross-sales

October 29, 2007

I (“Wandering” Dave) moderate the Web Analytics Forum, and a few days ago, Tim M posted a question about cross-sell activities, and determining the effectiveness of some changes they recently made. In particular, he notes that, “The difficulty I’m finding is in determining the attributable growth in store sales overall to cross-sell.”

This is indeed a difficult problem that I seldom see addressed, so I wanted to note that there are a couple of ways to “buy” some measurements in situations like these. Of course, they are dependent on a few attributes of the product or service you’re selling, such as the average unit price. If you’re selling $1000 items, then you can probably afford a short 3-day coupon promotion where a web-printed coupon is brought into the store for a $25 discount. That will cost you $25 per response, but if you’re already doing something like a $20 discount promo, then it’s only an incremental $5 to collect some cross-sell data. Of course, if your average unit price is a $2.49 bottle of aspirin, you’ll need some other kind of incentive, like, “Print this coupon out and bring it in for a free buyer’s guide.”

(more…)

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Posted in Business Tips and Tricks, Web Analytics | Comments Off on Tracking web lift in retail cross-sales

Omniture Pacman? What future for Visual Sciences?

October 27, 2007

real-pacman.jpgYesterday I had a journalist calling me to ask my opinion regarding Visual Sciences’ takeover by Omniture. Since becoming a public company, Omniture has been acquiring different companies, but one can wonder: where’s Omniture going

Omniture strategy: Pacman?

We see different types of acquisitions done by Omniture in the past:

  1. Complementary products to enhance the portfolio of solutions proposed to their clients. This is the case for TouchClarity and Offermatica. One could argue that buying TouchClarity also allowed Omniture to have a better UK presence, but my feeling is that the technology was the first motivation for this acquisition. Other Web analytics players have also done acquisitions of this type as WebTrends with Position Gold and Dynamic Search or WebSideStory with Publish.
  2. A different type of acquisition made by Omniture is the one represented by that of Instadia. Instadia was a great Danish WA product that got acquired last year and if it wasn’t clear enough at the beginning, it is clear crystal now what the intentions where. Even if the product was interesting, Instadia’s product has been abandoned and clients are being migrated towards Omniture’s SiteCatalyst. The objectives behind this acquisition were to gain presence in the European market through customers and skillful employees that could integrate the rapidly growing European Omniture’s team (Omniture is now one of the vendors with most resources in the European market).

Based on this, where the does Visual Sciences acquisition fall? Well, a bit in between both scenarios. Buying Visual Sciences provides Omniture with clients, great minds and probably the best analytical and data visualization tool out there. See below for more details about Visual Sciences in the Omniture ecosystem. (more…)

Posted in Omniture, Visual Sciences, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News | 7 Comments »

OmniSciences?

October 26, 2007

OmnitureOmniture, le géant mondial des WA vient d’annoncer le rachat de son concurrent direct, Visual Sciences (anciennement connu sous le nom de WebSideStory) pour la coquette somme de 394 millions de dollars, soit un peu moins du quart de la valorisation d’Omniture.

Il y avait bien entendu des rumeurs sur le sujet, comme le soulignait Ian Thomas cet été.

Au-delà du montant de la transaction qui ne sera finalisée que l’année prochaine, ce rachat de VS permet à Omniture de consolider sa position de leader mais remet surtout en question l’équilibre de la concurrence entre les différents éditeurs.

Pour les partenaires d’Omniture ou de VS, la situation risque de devenir intéressante car ce rachat permettrait de proposer une gamme de solutions vraiment modulable même si je pressens que HBX va disparaître (à terme) au profit de SiteCatalyst. Il y aura donc tout un effort d’accompagnement des clients à ce moment-là.

Plus d’informations sur l’intégration des offres et services à partir de l’année prochaine 🙂

Liens:

Comme d’habitude, vos commentaires constructifs sont les bienvenus 🙂

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Posted in In French, Omniture, Visual Sciences, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News | 2 Comments »

Omniture in the process of buying Visual Sciences

October 26, 2007

OmnitureTitle says it all 🙂

An announcement by Jim MacIntyre goes:

Visual Sciences has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Omniture, Inc.
The press release announcing this acquisition is available for review on our website. Until regulatory review of the acquisition is complete and the transaction closes, both companies will continue to operate independently and will continue to compete in the marketplace. This means that we will continue to deliver the products, service and support that your businesses can rely on.We understand that you will have questions about the future of the products lines. Future direction for products will be determined following the closing of the transaction and after comprehensive planning and feedback from customers and partners.

There we have it folks; I personally like to think of it as the integration of the best of both worlds.

Let’s see how this develops 🙂

Links:

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Posted in Omniture, Visual Sciences, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News | Comments Off on Omniture in the process of buying Visual Sciences

Nouvelles fonctionnalités Google Analytics et Urchin v6

October 18, 2007

UrchinComme annoncé dans le billet d’Aurélie, Brett Crosby de Google (et ex-fondateur d’Urchin) a annoncé au cours du sommet eMetrics de Washington que la solution Urchin allait enfin être publiée dans sa version 6, que tout le monde attend depuis presque 3 ans.

Il faut dire que depuis le rachat d’Urchin Software par Google en mars 2005 pour intégrer la technologie UTM (Urching Tracking Module) à l’offre Google Analytics, on se demandait si Google n’avait carrément pas tué Urchin en se concentrant uniquement à Google Analytics.

Les rumeurs que nous avions entendu à Dublin au printemps dernier nous avaient laissé pleins d’espoir qu’une nouvelle version arrive, et nous y voici donc. (more…)

Posted in Emetrics Summit Washington 2007, Google Analytics, In French, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News | 1 Comment »

What’s new with Google Analytics, Brett Crosby’s eMetrics announcement

October 16, 2007

Google Analytics Authorized ConsultantIt’s always a pleasure to go to the eMetrics summits and hear from Brett Crosby what’s new and what Google has been working on in a very concise way. 15 minutes tops, crystal clear and true value for your money 😉

Last eMetrics in Washington, Google announced the launch of Google Website Optimizer. This time around, they are pushing a bit further by rolling out some very exciting features and holding true to their word to continuous support of their Urchin software version.

I’m pretty sure Julien will comment further about these new features. Let me just announce the big steps. So, what’s new with Google Analytics?

In a nutshell:

  1. Internal site search
  2. Event tracking of Web 2.0 Rich Internet Apps
  3. Outbound link tracking (TAGLESS!)
  4. Optional new GA.js code
  5. Urchin software from Google in beta version, only sold through GAACs.

Getting a bit deeper into the different features, Internal Site Search will show you the who, what & where of your internal search module. Reports will include time spent after search & reports of what happens afterwards. You can tie this back to your goal conversions and your e-commerce. I already know of a couple of clients who are going to be utterly thrilled with that!

Event tracking of Web 2.0 apps will allow you to track RIA in Ajax, Flash, Silverlight & Air and it will not inflate artificially your page views. It’s based on an event hierarchy of objects, action & label. Your object can for example be your player, the actions the buttons you use such as play, pause, etc. and the label will displays the name of the content.In your reports, you’ll be able to cross segment this with your other data such as geography for example.

As mentioned, outbound links will be tracked without additional use of tags. Gosh, that’s going to make life soooo much easier!

If you want to be able to use those 2 last features mentioned, you’ll have to update you code to include the new GA.js tag. It will also allow you to automatically detect SSL/HTTPS so that won’t be an issue anymore. Thank you very much! The new tag uses object-oriented code so it’s more compact and faster. And as a the cherry topping the cake, if you switch over from your urchin to your new GA code, EpikOne’s SiteScan is at your disposal, for free! Yeah!

UrchinLast but not least, Urchin software from Google is out in beta version, sold only by GAACs. It’s the software version that supports both page tagging and classic log files (if you still need that) and the good thing is that you can have both GA & Urchin running with a single tag. Urchin software from Google will therefore allow you to reprocess data and audit your raw logs if needed.
In terms of pricing, it’s a single fee of 2.995$, including all modules. It’s free if you’ve bought advanced support and if you didn’t, don’t worry: we will apply what you paid for moving from Urchin 5 up to Urchin 6.

So, on that note, thank you Brett, Google and the entire fabulous Google Analytics people working on this great product. And last but not least, happy birthday Avinash!

Julien back to you. Greetings from Washington.

Aurélie

Posted in eMetrics, Emetrics Summit Washington 2007, Events, Google Analytics, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Industry News | 6 Comments »

Eric Peterson joins OX2 as Director & Shareholder (Press Release)

October 16, 2007

Eric T. PetersonBrussels, October 16th 2007 — Eric Peterson becomes shareholder of OX2, the Belgian/pan-European interactive agency leader in the field of measurement and analysis of online behavior, also known as Web Analytics or WA. Eric Peterson becomes a shareholder as well as a member of the agency’s board. As such, Eric’s mission will be to influence the WebAnalytics.be business unit by confronting his vision of web analytics against that of Aurélie Pols (Web Analytics Team Leader chez OX2). Eric Peterson will also travel to Europe to assist OX2’s European clients, should they require his unique presentation and strategic workshop management skills. (more…)

Posted in About us, Web Analytics, Web analytics Demystified, Web Analytics Industry News | 2 Comments »

OX2 Expands to Germany (Press Release)

October 10, 2007

David Rhee (former Director of Web Analytics at Gateway Computer) joins OX2 to lead the agency’s new German branch

Wandering Dave Rhee with OX2 logoBrussels, October 10th, 2007 — OX2, the Belgian interactive agency and a leader in the field of website measurement and online behavior analysis (a.k.a. Web Analytics) increases its international clout. After expanding into France last January, OX2 develops its activities in Germany by opening a web analytics branch in Frankfurt. This endeavor was made possible with the addition of a renowned web analytics expert to the already celebrated Web Analytics European Dream Team. OX2 went all the way to California to retain the services of David Rhee, former Acting Director of Web Analytics at Gateway Computer (NYSE:GTW) and Primary Moderator of the Web Analytics Forum, run by the Web Analytics Association.

Download the Complete Press Release:

Choose your prefered language option: (English – French – Dutch)

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Posted in About us, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Forum, Web Analytics Industry News | 4 Comments »

Free Burma!

October 4, 2007

Free Burma!

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Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Web Analytics Video from BarCamp Buenos Aires (Spanish)

October 2, 2007

Here’s the video that we sent for the BarCamp event last week-end in Buenos Aires. I was requested to speak about the state of Web analytics in Europe and give some examples of things that we were doing with Web Analytics for our clients. As you can hear it’s in Spanish.

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Posted in About us, Events, Web Analytics | 7 Comments »

Google Analytics dashboard version 2

October 2, 2007

EDIT: As of 2011, Google shut down iGoogle widget API, this KPI dashboard is now obsolete

A while back, I was raving about the Google Analytics KPI dashboard module for iGoogle (by the good folks at Monitus). It seems they just went ahead and published a v2 of their dashboard tool.

If you had it installed already, you will notice an additional drop-down menu that helps you categorize your site and eventually, the get the best KPIs for your site and to compare your site against industry peers. Also, you can now enable/disable the KPIs you wish to see on the dashboard.

Go on to their site, take the tour and view the video they made to cover v2’s features.
After that, I guess you’ll be as excited as I was this morning 🙂

If anything, this is a good shout out to other vendors: who’s next in enabling a web dashboarding API? 😉

Julien

Posted in Blogging, Google Analytics, Web 2.0, Web Analytics | 2 Comments »

OMD Düsseldorf 2007

October 1, 2007

This year, attendance at OMD, the Online Marketing conference held in Düsseldorf, was expected to top last year’s 6000 attendees — but I think everyone was surprised by the 11.000 who registered!

And for much of Tuesday, it seemed as though they were all blocking the aisles between me at the next seminar I wanted to attend or booth I wanted to visit.

Naturally, the web analytics vendors were represented — Omniture, WebTrends, Nedstat, Visual Sciences — though they all had smaller booths since for them, it’s a “must be there to show your face” kind of event, not one where prospects really coming looking for you. Google had a huge presence, and at least one or two of the GA folks where at their booth, but you couldn’t find them among the 50(!) other Googlers who were wearing brightly-colored T-shirts and chatting with everyone who came by. (more…)

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Posted in Events, Web Analytics | 4 Comments »