I’m constantly surprised by the number of people who are using the simple vendor discovery tool I built. I know that some sales people use it to check out prospects and others use it just to keep track of who is using Google Analytics. Other than that, its usage is a mystery to me.

Still, if you’re interested in who is using what web analytics tool you might want to subscribe to the new RSS feed I published. That way you can be updated whenever someone searches a URL looking for tag-based analytics tools.

Fun, huh?

Once it starts to rain here in Oregon I’ll probably build a Web Analytics Demystified-branded Konfabulator widget to stream the feed to your desktop. I know, you’re praying for rain …

The estimated hundreds of thousands of web sites now running Google Analytics owe some part of the availability of said solution to Brett Crosby. I’ve known Brett now for years and have always been impressed with his candor, honesty and fundamental desire to “spread the word” about web analytics. Now Brett and his team run the world’s most popular web analytics application.

Lucky guy.

Manoj Jasra at Web Analytics World has a really good interview with Brett you should read if you haven’t already. Especially interesting to me, given my recent bent about measuring the emerging Web 2.0 universe, was Brett’s comment about how Google + Google Analytics + Jeff Veen are working on the problem. Watch out, world!

Crap.

Awhile back I spouted off about not liking Avinash’s strategy for ranking “web analytics bloggers” and said something less than complimentary about Marshall Sponder, the WebMetricsGuru blogger. Now Marshall goes and writes one of the most positively effusive pieces about Visual Sciences I’ve ever read titled Visual Science’s Superior Web Analytics Product.

Loaded with quotes like “no other analytics product on the market today can touch Visual Sciences power to categorize data” and “Visual Sciences is the best Web Analytics platform money can buy - no question of it” this post is worth a read. Some of his comments border on hyperbole but it’s pretty typical of the response you get when someone with web analytics experience sees Visual Site for the first time.

Plus, given the recent hubbub in the Yahoo! group about tag validation, his “refrigerator” analogy is worth a read. I guess I hadn’t really thought about it that way …

So yeah, I feel bad. I don’t know Marshall very well and pretty much ended up on his bad side but now I hope to see him at Emetrics so I can buy him a drink. Marshall, if you read this blog (I kinda doubt you do) find me at the Sheraton, drinks are on me.

I’ve been busy so I’m late to the news but I’m sure by now you’ve all seen that MSN has corrected the search referrer problem they created earlier this week. You can read more about it in a post that Ian Thomas from MSN posted to the Yahoo! group. Ian’s a great guy and it was nice of him to provide the group this information.

Now if only everyone could get the data back from the 15th to the 21st, huh?

I had been hearing about a book on Google Analytics for some time now and it just hit the streets. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet but Tim Seward at ROI Revolution has a nice write up on his weblog.

Tim’s funny. He talks a little bit about the book and then throws me mad props:

“As an interesting side note, and to highlight how far we still have to go to quench the thirst for understanding of the power of website analytics, 22% of all purchasers of this book from Amazon bought either of two books published by analytics luminary/author Eric Peterson (as of the date of this writing 12% bought “Web Analytics Demystified” and 10% bought “Web Site Measurement Hacks”). Eric has written practically half of all of the books on the subject.”

Tim, remind me to buy you drinks at Emetrics to thank you for the kind words. And, if you get your Web Analytics Wednesday up and running in North Carolina, let me know. I’ve been known to travel to Web Analytics Wednesday events and I love your part of the country.

It will be interesting to see how the G.A. book sells. I pitched O’Reilly on the idea back when they started giving it away but they were cool to the idea of Google books at the time. More recently I turned Yahoo! group co-moderator Brian Clifton onto an opportunity to write a O’Reilly Shortcut book on Google Analytics. I also know that “Web Analytics for Dummies” is coming out early next year … not sure if I’d buy a “for Dummies” book on this subject but who knows.

Anyway, thanks again to Tim and if you’ve got the G.A. book I’d love to hear your comments and impressions.