Development Seed Blog

Urchin (link via the google cache) a web analytics company and a division of Google has just been drawn deeper in, been transformed, rebranded, and now re-emerged as Google Analytics. The business plan of what had been Urchin has been remade into the google mold as well. Google only acquired Urchin back in March, but what was then a $199 a month service is now free.

Currently the service seems to be experiencing a few growing pains, but I know that one this period of transition is over we'll be using the service, and I know some of our clients will to.

Here's how it works for you; a short snippet of javascript code needs to be added to all the pages on your website that you want tracked. If you're using Drupal this is real easy, it's just a quick change to your site's template file. Then every time the page is loaded certain information is sent to Google, things like the IP of the guest and what the referring URL is. The Google is able to use this information to track things like the geographic location of the visitor, what search keywords lead them to your page, etc.

And here's how it works for Google; they get more of your information, and you're happy to give it to them. Google has completely altered the business model of Urchin, or rather what is now Google Analytics, so that it truly is part of Google. In a continuing trend Google is proving that it is more interested in what it can do with knowing the habits of internet users that it is in charging you for an individual service. The more information they have about how and why we use the internet more ads the can sell and the more indispensable they become.