Is Google Analytics Getting More "Real Time"?

[jsinger]

I'm fairly new to GA, but I always heard it updated stats only once a day. Yet, after playing with it extensively this week, I noticed:

1) Visitor and commerce stats are being updated every few hours.

2) Even so, stats take a while, sometimes a day or more, to become fully accurate and final.

Is GA getting more "real time?"

[jacksenser]

I think it is impossible to provide stable real time stats service for the whole world website, even google.
it is not a great stats service company.
so don't take more energy on it.

[Propools]

I would say the best place to get the most recent site analytics is your site's log file. At any moment I can go grab the file and have information as close to a given time proximity as it takes for me to download the file, then have my analytics apparatus sift through it.

[jsinger]

More nearly "real time" results from GA make it easier and safer to adjust all those tricky filters, goals, funnels and tracking links.

I've always waited till the next day to see what my changes accomplished, or messed up. Now I learn that I can see results within hours.

Has anyone else noticed an improvement in how fast GA updates stats?

[travelin cat]

It really seems to be lagging today. Looks to me like my account is at least 6-7 hours behind based upon past experience.

[Propools]

I reckon too that we should remember that this tracking is also done via JavaScript, No?

So, does it report when viewers have JavaScript disabled in their browsers? Now, when I first set this up on our site, I did as Google asked at the time, which was to put the script at the bottom of the page. If someone clicks on a link on the page, before the page is fully loaded does it record that clicked link information or not. If not, might it count it as an 'Exit' from the site.

I say all of this because that does impact timeliness and accuracy of the analytics. Again, I go back to the accuracy and timeliness of the server log file...... ;)

[jsinger]

I'm concurrently running both (log based) Urchin and (js remote) stats from GA. Been comparing them for the past 10 days.

Urchin showed about 1.9% more site visits than GA. On total page views, Urchin was only about 0.2% higher than GA. On two or three of the ten days, GA was higher than Urchin. GA day here ends at 2:00 AM while Urchin's ends at 5:00 AM, I believe. GA does require the visitor to use js and cookies.

My code is in a bottom include on each page.

I'm quite happy with the accuracy of my new GA when I give it a day for the stats to "settle down." With so many options, it is a bear to set up. Ecommerce tracking seems accurate, but I haven't focused on testing that yet.

And, yes, GA is lagging more than usual today.