Of course, this is just my/our experience!

I figure that with Adobe (who actually knows how to do business correctly), there’s a chance of Omniture shaping up.

Obviously, I failed to clarify my thoughts. Analytics packages are a great barometer, but using one is similar to using an iPhone to produce a feature-length movie. At the end of the day, you need to match each sale with a source. You can do that in several ways. We use a combination of our in-house analytics and direct communication with our clients (we use Google Analytics as a barometer). We have the luxury of being a smaller firm, which allows us to follow up with a large percentage of our clients. That feedback is invaluable, and no analytics package can replicate verbal communication.

Building a complete analytics package would be a dangerous and expensive undertaking. However, if you are after critical data that is proven to increase conversion, I do not believe you can use a free or paid analytics package as the only arrow in your quiver. I have yet to find an analytics package that solves the issue of re-acquired paid search clients. It is an issue I brought up previously with Judah Phillips (http://lb.vg/gb4R2).

I would agree that Web analytics is hard, and it is not wise to make it harder. I would re-iterate that you cannot blindly trust numbers out of a software application. If you do not understand where these numbers are coming from and you cannot tie them to unique session identification numbers, you have no idea of whether those figures are accurate. We have determined the numbers in our analytics application to be accurate because they match dollar for dollar that which has been processed by our merchant service provider. Again, this is a feature that is not available from any analytics package, free or paid.

I appreciate your feedback (and rant) and I look forward to your next post!

Darren Shafae

Regarding building your own — what a disastrous idea that is! In an era where great free analytics are at your fingertips why would any business waste time trying to solve the long-list of problems the vendors deal with every day? And your statement about “more reliable and accurate” is, at least in my experience, 100% wrong. I have worked over my decade in the industry with dozens of companies that tried to “roll their own” and ** every ** instance was met with mistrust in the data, misuse of the system, and more or less outright failure.

Sorry to rant, but I disagree pretty strongly. Web analytics is hard, why make it harder?

Everyone: Thanks so much for your comments. Whether we agree or disagree it is a nice reminder what a great and tight community we all work in. I don’t get the fawning and hero worship in my blog that some folks do — I get smart, critical thinkers who are concerned about the fate of our industry.

I prefer that.

Again, congratulations to the team at Adobe and Omniture and best of luck with the acquisition and integration.

Funny you mention Unica. I talked to their CEO this week and he seems pretty encouraged by the acquisition, almost strangely so. Apparently they have been getting a lot of traction vs. Omniture in competitive situations lately. I have considered them to be a “sleeping giant” this past year — they are so quiet from a sales and marketing perspective — perhaps with this shakeup the giant will awaken?

Adam: Interesting thought. Why would Microsoft be “forced” to buy Adobe? Are they really that competitive? Silverlight perhaps, but Adobe’s core applications have always struck me as a great compliment to Windows applications, not competition.

I do agree, Omniture would have helped MSFT get into SaaS but I suspect their focus on the office suite as an online offering is where the company is making their bet — not with a (relatively) tiny company in a niche market with revenues that are a rounding error for Redmond.

Oracle on the other hand … ;-)

Christopher: … at least you didn’t say “the winner will be the one that is easiest to use ;-)”

Tom: I have to admit, I have no idea what you are talking about. How does Omniture change Flash? We have been measuring Flash for years using Omniture, Google, WebTrends, Core, Unica, etc. All this talk about how the acquisition will make Flash easier to measure … I just don’t see that.

Measuring Flash has been an implementation issue, a process issue … not a technology issue.

Tom: Giving Omniture away to the masses would be the worst possible idea in my humble opinion. Have you installed it recently? It is a massive undertaking. Trying to get the same type of critical mass that Google has gained with a tag many multiples more complicated than Google Analytics is unlikely at best.

I see this as the core risk to Yahoo Web Analytics, although their deployment strategy can mitigate some of that risk. Maybe what you’re saying is that MSFT, had they acquired OMTR, could have used the same strategy?

Jacques: Ah, the irony. Based on what I’m hearing Josh has a different definition of “nuisance” than the rest of us. Such is life.

Dan: A step, I agree, but a huge step? My understanding is that Omniture doubles their recurring revenue from 10% to 20% of total revenue but growing that number is dependent on an awful lot of things, don’t you agree?

Also, if this is a +++ from the stakeholders view, how do you interpret the ** shareholders ** beating the stock is getting?