Today Steve Jackson from the Conversion Chronicles posted a nice review of my Big Book of Key Performance Indicators. In his review, Mr. Jackson said:

“This book is a steal at $19.99. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about what they should be measuring online as well as how, who for and why. If you’re in a large organisation it’s a must have as Eric describes very well how to overcome some of the problems you will face getting your voice heard. If you’re in a smaller business you will be able to implement the findings from this book quite easily.”

I couldn’t agree more!

Also, Larry Dallas reviewed Web Site Measurement Hacks in his blog, Internet Marketing Quickies. In his review, Mr. Dallas said:

“Web Site Measurement Hacks, the follow up to Web Analytics Demystified, was actually a little too hardcore for me in some areas. But, web analytics is an area that Internet marketing folks can never have too much expertise in. The book actually walks through the coding to build your own analytics tool - sick. This was helpful in gaining a detailed understanding of how analytics works “under the hood”.”

“Sick” … I love it!

The best thing about Larry’s review, aside from the nice commentary, is the picture of Jessica Alba. I’m not sure why he picked Mrs. Alba—maybe he guessed I religiously watched Dark Angel (and I’m not one for television unless it’s basketball or football or Dora the Explorer.)

Either way, thanks to both gentlemen!

I have seen a bunch of announcements that the good guys at ZAAZ are going to be supporting Google Analytics. According to Brett Crosby (another good guy), “The model that we’ve put together with Zaaz for the high end of the market is that the data is free, and you pay for what you need with ZAAZ.”

Back in my old job I hammered on Google’s need to actually support the application. Not just installation support; actually supporting their customers efforts to learn about web analytics and how web data analysis can help them better run their business. It looks like this announcement is a step in that direction.

The risk I see, specifically to ZAAZ, is that if they’re able to successfully shift the desire for value-added analytics services from the “Fortune 500 companies to smaller online merchants” (Shane Atchinson, ZAAZ’s CEO’s words) then ZAAZ will be immediately and hopelessly backlogged with work.

Yeah, the kind of problem we all want to have, but still a problem.

It will be really interesting to see how the next few months go for Jason, Shane and company supporting Google Analytics and whether similar announcements follow. I wish all involved all the best!

I was browsing my daily threads and noticed this posting at the official Google blog, describing their excitement about the new StopBadware.ORG initiative.

While I sincerely applaud Google for lending their brand name to helping quell the spyware/badware problem, I quickly reviewed their draft software guidelines for any mention of browser cookies. I didn’t find any, but I did find this:

3.2 Disclosure and Consent for Collection and Transmission of Personally Identifiable Information. If an application collects or transmits personally identifiable information to anyone but the end user, or if an application collects or transmits information that could contain personally identifiable information (e.g., Internet usage or keystroke logging), then prior to the first occurrence of any such collection or transmission, the application must:

first, fully, accurately, clearly and conspicuously disclose:the type of information collected (e.g., the user’s phone number),
the method of collection (e.g., by registration, etc.), and
the location of the privacy policy; and

[then, obtain the end user’s affirmative consent to such collection and/or transmission.]

While on it’s surface this section does not appear to apply to browser cookies, the example of “Internet usage” makes me wonder. Since the fundamental use of browser cookies in web analytics applications is to facilitate the stitching together of sessions to better describe the visitors usage of the web site, measuring “Internet usage” may fall within a reasonable interpretation of this statement.

I just wrote to the StopBadware.ORG folks (an impressive list of advisors, to be sure) asking them for their opinion on cookies. I’ll let you know what I find out!

… if so, then we want you at Visual Sciences!

One of the things I’ve been brought on board to do is help our company staff-out with super-talented people who really understand data and how to use it. We currently have an opening for a Technical Consultant (see listing at Careerbuilder.) If you’ve been wondering what we’re doing here at Visual Sciences and are interested in learning more, have a look at this posting or drop me a line and I’ll connect you with the right people.

It’s been a week since I started at Visual Sciences and I must admit it’s really nice to be back in the mix. I also must admit it’s been really nice to get all the complimentary emails from folks I’ve worked with in the past, vendors and non-vendors alike. If I haven’t had the time to respond to your email directly, please accept my apologies. I have a lot to learn still about our applications and have been pretty heads-down focused on that. My hope is that within a month or two to be able to refer to myself as a “Visual Scientist”, thusly taking advantage of the two years I spent in graduate school studying the molecular evolution of a Northwest Ascomycete fungal genus (Otidea for those of you in the know about the Ascomycete genera ;-)

Oh, someone did ask why I disabled comments on my weblog. Mostly because they were attracting comment-SPAM but also since, in my experience, comments only invite headaches. If you’d like to comment on anything I post, please feel free to email me directly and I’ll blog your comment if it seems appropriate.