web analytics

Since the early days of the Internet, Web site owners have strained to understand who is coming to their sites and what those people are doing. At first it was all about "eyeballs" and the sheer number of visitors. Reports would contain the number of visitors per hours, per day, per week, etc. Growth trends were easy to see, and everyone was looking for the "hockey stick." Pie charts, bar charts, and data grids ruled back then.

This quickly turned into a goals-based analysis where site owners would define a series of pages they wanted their users to travel, followed by an action, which could be purchasing a product, submitting a form or simply spending time on a content page.  Sites like WebAnalyticsBook and Digital Vinci cover this in detail.

The field of web analytics tools has grown crowded and the offerings all seem to blur together. Some of the current frontrunners are Google Analytics, Urchin, Omniture, and Web Trends. There are also some new faces that put a specialized spin on an old theme. LeaderLander and Overstat are two great examples. Leadlander specializes in focusing visitor information to close sales and Overstat strives to display visitor behavior graphically with Flash technology.  The next generation of tools will have more specialty than today's "all purpose" tools and we all hope their interfaces improve.

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