The return of IndexTools...I mean, Yahoo Web Analytics?
As one of the holdover companies from the IndexTools days, I've been waiting to hear more on the re-launch as Yahoo Web Analytics, and it's been a long time since I've made a peep about it. You may recall a good long time ago when I decided to give people an introduction to what YWA (well, still IndexTools really) had to offer. I definitely lauded it at the time, but while I'm sure Mr. Mortensen and his team have been doing their darndest to roll out a fabulous product, I've found myself moving almost exclusively to Google Analytics, as they have been beefing up their offerings at an incredible rate.
That said, some potentially exciting tidbits came recently in the form of an email from YWA that I thought I'd share with those who have been anxiously waiting, or those who may just be slightly curious. It went like this:
These bullets definitely got my head spinning a bit. Let's take a look one by one...
- Demographics. REALLY??? While this is a marketer's dream, I approach this with the utmost in skepticism. What exactly does this mean? Where does the demographic data come from? What level of detail? I will temper my expectations, as MSN tried to offer something similar in their beta launch, and I got such highly actionable data as this:
- Oodles of custom variables? AWESOME. IndexTools had a lot of flexibility advantages over Google Analytics a while back, and this should put them back in the game. I'm excited to tear into this, particularly for our ecommerce clients.
- 50 actions? Wow, this is a major expansion over what IndexTools offered in its days as a paid service. That's impressive. For those keeping score at home, Google only offers four goals to track in a single profile. If you have a complicated site with lots of potential goals/goal pages, this will be a godsend.
- I'll wait and see on the charts, but adding notes, if done properly, could make reporting a helluva lot easier for some clients.
- I haven't needed more flexibility than what they offered as IndexTools, but I'm sure greater control will be a nice addition for many agencies.
Wow (I keep saying that), it's been a while since I had a post focused almost totally on analytics. It feels good...my blood's flowing again. I'm just realizing the content of my blogging largely relates to whatever my day to day focus has shifted to. As you may have noticed, I've been doing a heavy load of SEO lately, so that's been reflected here. I have a big analytics consulting project tying up in the next few weeks, and depending on when this drops, hopefully I'll have more to report soon...an updated review of new features perhaps? Stay tuned.
About Joe Ford
Joe Ford is a Managing Partner at Netvantage Marketing. In addition to overseeing day to day business operations of Netvantage, he directs paid search strategy for over 14 paid search clients. Ford is on the Lansing Chamber Board of Directors, and the Executive Board of the Capital Area IT Council.
Tags: analytics demographics, new indextools features, will yahoo analytics be better than google analytics, yahoo analytics features, yahoo analytics launch, yahoo web analytics features
