Analytics Talk

New Google Analytics Features & Announcements

October 16, 2007 by Justin Cutroni

Today Google announced a number of new features for Google Analytics. I’m really excited about these features because they will greatly improve our ability to understand our site site visitors and what they want to do. You should know that this is a true beta. Google is taking signups for the new features and they should be rolled out to beta testers soon.

Links for More Information

It would be impossible to thoroughly explain each feature in a single post, so I’ve written a number of articles to cover everything you need to know.

GA.JS: New Google Analytics Tracking Code
GA On Site Search Pt. 1: Overview & Setup
GA On Site Search Pt. 2: Reporting & Usage
GA Event Tracking Pt. 1: Overview & Data Model
GA Event Tracking Pt. 2: Implementation
GA Event Tracking Pt. 3: Reporting
Urchin 6 Software
Automatic Oubound Link Tracking

New GA.JS Tracking Code

The first big change is a new version of the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC). The new code is object oriented, has a smaller file size and enables a number of features. The old tracking code is not going away (yet), so you don’t need to rush out and change all the tags on your pages. But you may want to given the next announcement…

Event Tracking

Google Analytics now supports Event tracking. A lot of people have been asking for it and now it exists. Google changed the GATC to enable event tracking.

You can now use Google Analytics to logically track anything, like video player interactions, visitor clicks, etc. The beauty is that you no longer need to create extra pageviews. Google has created a logical data model to help understand visitor actions and intent. I must admit, when I first heard that they were adding Event tracking to GA I was skeptical, but this feature is completely awesome! It is really well done.

Internal Site Search Reporting

The next addition is a series of reports that focus on internal site search. These reports provide a structured, logical way to evaluate the value of your onsite search. I’ve been testing these reports for a while and they are truly remarkable. I can’t tell you how much insight I’ve gained into site visitors by using them. Setup is really easy and I think everyone is going to like them. Note that the search reports are not related to, or affected by, the new tracking code.

Urchin 6 Software

And finally, Google announced a new version of Urchin software. Urchin 6 will be available in beta form starting October 22. For those of you unfamiliar with Urchin, it is a log analysis tool. You install it on your server, it crunches your log files and produces pretty graphs. Urchin 6 is a complete upgrade from Urchin 5. It has a new data processing engine and a new interface. It’s NOT using the current GA interface, it’s using the OLD GA interface. But it is a huge upgrade.

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Introducing Urchin 6

October 16, 2007 by Justin Cutroni

It’s finally here. After almost 3 years there is a new version of Urchin. For those of you that do not know what Urchin is, it is a log processing web analytics tool and the predecessor to Google Analytics. Urchin 6 will be released as a beta product on October 22 to existing Urchin customers only. If you are not an Urchin customer then you will have to wait until the beta period expires.

This is a true beta. I’ve been testing Urchin 6 for a few weeks and it looks very promising. However, there are a couple of ‘kinks’ and I would not make any business decisions based on the data. However, if you’re an Urchin 5 owner, and you will never move to GA, I suggest you get a copy of the beta and test it out. The usability is much better than Urchin 5.

Getting Urchin 6

To get a copy of the beta software contact EpikOne (or one of the other resellers). I’m partial to EpikOne. Be sure to have the following information ready when you contact your reseller:

• Name
• Email
• Website URL
• Google Account ID (e.g. gmail address)
• Urchin serial code
• Reason for using Urchin Software instead of Google Analytic

Pricing

The pricing for Urchin 6 is pretty straight forward. The complete product will be $2,995 US and there will be discounts for some existing users. The price includes the full functionality. You no longer need to worry about purchasing different modules. Urchin 6 includes everything, you can run Urchin 6 with e-commerce and campaign tracking functionality on lots of servers with no extra cost.

Urchin 5 owners who previously purchased an Advanced Support contract with Urchin directly will get Urchin Software for free. This is an important point. Free is a pretty good cost.

If you are a regular Urchin 5 owner then the price of Urchin 6 will be discounted based on the price you paid for Urchin 5. So, if you purchased Urchin 5 for $895 US then the price of Urchin for you will be $2,100 US ($2,995 US - $895 US).

Front End Changes

The front end of Urchin has been completely updated. In fact, Urchin 6 has the old Google Analytics interface. That means that features like cross segmentation have been added to the product. They’ve also removed the custom old SVG graphics and added Flash graphs. I did not have a chance to take any screenshots, but the interface is a tremendous improvement, both in usability and functionality, over the old Urchin 5.

Back End Changes

Urchin’s back end has been completely re-written to accommodate the new front end. The processing engine has been changed, the database structure has been expanded and a new MySQL database has been added to manage users. I want to stress this last point, that MySQL is now used to store Urchin 6 user data and not visitor data.

General Thoughts

I really like the new Urchin 6… but I really like Google Analytics. For the past few years I’ve been suggesting to clients that they migrate to GA. It’s easier to setup and the reporting is far superior. With that said, some organizations can not use GA. If you’re one of them I would strongly recommend taking a look at Urchin 6. For the price, it is a robust tool with lots of features.

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