Forum Moderators: DixonJones
First, you'll be able to use Google Analytics to track site search activity. Simply edit any of your Google Analytics profiles to enable "Site Search" and you can find out what people search for on your site and where these searches lead.We'll begin a limited beta test of the new Google Analytics Event Tracking capability. These new reports are designed to help you understand how people use and interact with Ajax, Flash and multimedia on your site without artificially increasing your pageview metrics.
We'll also initiate a limited beta test in the coming weeks of our new Outbound Link Tracking feature.
Finally, Brett announced the Urchin Software from Google limited beta. Urchin is a software product that you run on your own servers.
Google Analytics Rolls Out New Features [analytics.blogspot.com]
But after all the requests, why do they still refuse to allow tracking by complete URL including query strings? I like to sort inbounds by domain, look for new ones, and then follow up on page the links are on. As often as not, these are forums with URLs like "example.com/index.php?post=12345" and of course GA does not report enough of the URL to find the actual page.
But I thought you could already use an external link tracker by adding the following to links:
onclick="javascript:urchinTracker('/outgoing/widget');"The search tracker is really, really, essential, one thing that made me reconsider many times using my own search function or Google's, because it provides you essential input on what's people's minds and what they are looking for. The adsense keywords search report is very, very limited and almost useless, so I'm glad to see that one.
I wish they would integrate adsense a little better though, like at least knowing which page gets the most clicks, from what traffic source and keywords, etc (I don't really expect them to provide us *which* ad was clicked though, but that'd be really nice). I already use some third party javascript software (astrack.js) but it seems unreliable and I'd rather have something official from Google.
Other than slightly more accurate log tracking, does Urchin offer anything not in GA? Only thing I can think of is better ecommerce product level stats, I think.
I already use some third party javascript software (astrack.js) but it seems unreliable
I find them useless unless it shows which keyword is tied to which clicks.
Not to mention that it can't collect any useful info from Firefox (at least last I tried) and, probably not from IE7 either. As I understood it, this was by design. The newer security features (in FF at least) were specifically designed to prevent gathering information in that manner. Not sure what GA will offer in that respect.
I'm assuming that the new functionality would use DOM scripting to add onclick behavior to a <a> tags and let you track without adding code to each link manually.
The service is free because you pay for it with your data. If you don't like that condition, best use a tool that you host yourself.
I figure if I want something to remain relatively secret, it behooves me not to use GA or any other Google products, no?
I'm assuming that the new functionality would use DOM scripting to add onclick behavior to a <a> tags and let you track without adding code to each link manually.
I've had that for over two years now. Much easier to deploy on existing sites without having to think about adding a special link. It's just a standard feature.
