Archive for July, 2009

UPDATE: John Lovett from Forrester Research, or @JohnLovett as I like to think of him, has weighted in on the use of #measure and appears to be on board. He also documented how quickly things change in our increasingly hectic world and how fast a “standard” can become yesterday’s news.

Just a quick post to help bring attention to the fact that the fine people of Washington state have officially over-run the #wa hashtag that many web analytics folks have been using in Twitter. While this certainly our loss given how terse #wa is when you’re limited to 140 characters it is difficult to fault those folks since WA is their state’s abbreviation.

Such is life in an unregulated world, huh?

As a replacement I have started using #measure when tagging my web analytics-related Tweets. And while there was some debate about #measure versus #waamo and #analytics and the such I would propose that #measure is the basis for everything we do. Without measurement there is no analysis; without measurement there is only gut feel.

That said I am choosing to use the #measure tag … you may choose to use something completely different. But since I was one of the catalysts to start using #wa in the first place I figured I would see if lightning might strike twice!

See you in the #measure cloud!

Bill Gassman from Gartner is one of those guys that just “gets” what we’re trying to do in the web and digital analytics industry. Perhaps because he’s been covering this space for nearly as long as I’ve been around, or perhaps because he has a deep business intelligence background and sees where all this is going. I dunno, but Bill gets it.

Recently Bill, who is incidentally coming to the 2009 X Change and leading a huddle on organizational issues and co-leading a huddle on technology with John Lovett from Forrester, published a short brief on Google Analytics that I thought really hit the nail on the head. Clear, honest, and fully taking the Enterprise into account, Bill’s report clarified a lot about how companies should be thinking about Google’s analytics solution.

Since I could not get permission to republish Bill’s report I did the next best thing — I came up with some questions and put them to the man himself. The following are my questions and Bill’s responses. Incidentally, if you want to follow-up on this interview Bill graciously said he would monitor the comments and respond there (so comment away!)

Or, you could just come to San Francisco on September 9, 10, and 11 and debate the goodness of Google Analytics with Bill in person.

Regarding your recent note on Google Analytics, can you characterize how the companies who are asking you about “free” analytics have changed in the last 12 months?  Is any one thing driving that change, do you think?

Since Google Analytics improved last October, most client inquires about Web analytics touch on Google Analytics.  That is why I published the note “Is Google Analytics Right for You?”.  (Gartner account required to access)  Marketing departments ask if it is all they need, purchasing agents wonder why they should spend money on commercial tools and corporate lawyers wonder about Google’s terms and conditions.   The economy and budget constraints trigger the questions, but the major driver to Google is its simplicity.  Many organizations do not have the processes in place to make use of the high-end products or have Web sites that do not need the sophistication they offer.  They perceive Google Analytics as good enough and “free” is a tempting offer.

If Google asked you which three things were most important to add to their functional set to be considered “Enterprise” what would those three things be?

Getting to functional parity with the commercial tools is not enough for Google Analytics to be considered enterprise class.  Google should charge for an enterprise class offering, because a lot is required as is the accountability that goes with the exchange of money.  They must also provide enterprise class support and address issues with the terms of service policy.  The key function missing is a visitor centric repository, so users can define complex multi-session segments and export visitor information to campaign and content management tools.  Google would also have to extend personalized service from customers with significant AdWords accounts to those willing to pay for it.  Finally, the terms of use policy has no service level guarantee and users must look for a FAQ to find assurances of privacy.

On the subject of “Enterprise-class” analytics … Google appears obsessed with this designation, regardless of their clear dominance from a deployment standpoint and the gains they’ve made within larger companies.  What do you think is behind their obsession?

Google appears to be fighting an asymmetric war with IBM, Microsoft and others, investing relatively little yet forcing competitors to take notice.  We see this especially for office applications and cloud computing.  Google is looking for products that give them credibility at the enterprise level, and Google Analytics is part of that story.  Other parts of the story include the recent news about the Chrome OS, Google Search Appliance, Google apps (premier edition), Geospatial Solutions, and Google App Engine for cloud computing.  While many large organizations are using some or all of these offerings, with few exceptions, only the Search Appliance has gained strategic status.  Google still brings in 97% of its revenue through advertising.  They might be showing obsession because of where they want to be, but then again, they could be throwing up a smoke screen to keep the competition too busy to attack Google on advertising.

What do you consider the single greatest risk to Google’s analytics business in the next 24 months?

There is no threat to Google’s analytics business, because Web analytics is not their business, yet.  Out of 72 million active Web servers (as reported by Netcraft), about 20,000 organizations pay for Web analytics.  Google gives away Google Analytics so that millions of Web site owners can see the impact of AdWords and buy more Google ads.  If there is a threat, it is Yahoo Web Analytics, who is using a similar tactic to go after Google’s advertising revenue.

Are you now, or do you see in the near future, a situation where as a Gartner analyst you are advising your clients to actively consider free solutions from Google and Yahoo alongside “traditional” web analytics solutions like Omniture, WebTrends, and Coremetrics?

Running two sets of tools on the same Web pages can be a recipe for trouble, because reported numbers will not match, reducing respect and therefore value for both tools.  There are situations however where two tools make sense.  It would be great if all organizations had the leadership, investment, skills and processes to use commercial tools to meet everyone’s needs, but for too many, it has not worked out that way.  When analytic resources are limited, it is pragmatic to focus commercial tools on the high-value parts of the site and let other site stakeholders use free tools. Analysis is a critical part of a customer centric Web strategy.  If some departments are happy with the free tools and a central group cannot support them, it is OK to let chaos reign until the business justification, investment and leadership are available to do things right.

One of the biggest problems we face in web analytics today is our industry’s lack of standards and common definitions. And while a great number of incredibly bright folks have put a ton of energy into solving these problems, in my humble opinion we are more or less where we started years ago — agreeing politely to disagree. Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know that I’m not shy about disagreement — perhaps more than anything my analyst’s mind loves a spirited debate — but I also am somewhat anxious about creating tangible outcomes.

To this end I am incredibly excited about two huddles at X Change 2009, one that was just added! The first is Forrester’s John Lovett’s “Web Analytics Standards (or a Lack Thereof)” in which John will be leading us through the current state of industry standards, proposed definitions and our collective understanding of analytics terminology. The second, and one just added to the X Change, is Jim Hassert’s “When is a Visitor Not a Real Person?” huddle in which Jim will take John’s huddle one step further and drill-down into the often irreconcilable differences found in the seemingly harmless “visitor” metric and dimension.

Last year I was forced to miss a lot of good huddles. This year a team of wild horses couldn’t keep me from missing these two.

While I have little doubt that both of these huddles will live up to the spirit of the X Change my hope is that they will go one step further. I would love to see both produce some kind of actionable outcome, something that we can carry forth into our careers and the wider conversation about our industry. Given that some serious talent is already signed up for the X Change — including some of the brightest minds in the practitioner and vendor community — I have little doubt that we have the brain power … now all we need is the resolve to do something and not just push words around on paper.

If you’re a reader of this blog and want to join us at the X Change I’m happy to help you out.  If you act before July 31st I am offering a 15% discount on the registration (a $300 savings!)

Come to the X Change. Agree to do more than “politely disagree” — take a stand, defend your ideas, and help shape tangible and positive outcomes.