Tapefailure is a solution that lets you record and watch visits to your website.

How do you replay 1,000 visits without having to look at them one-by-one?

While we do give the users the option to view each and every tape we record, a lot of the value also lies in what we have and will continue to be doing with the data from the tapes. We give the user insight into their website through statistics, graphs, and heat maps, which we feel provides a lot of value. It’s funny that you mention an “average tapes” tool — that is something we have in production (and nearly ready for release as another feature); it uses an algorithm, that we have devised carefully, to score tapes on how “average” they are and returns the top 5 “most average” tapes. We are very much looking forward to what people have to say about this new feature when it is released, and we will be constantly tweaking it to make it more and more accurate.

I assume what constitutes a successful visit will be in the eyes of the beholder? Or can you define what a successful visit would look like and then count the number of successful visits?

Right now, we let our users judge what they believe to be a “successful” visit, but we are always looking into ways to “simplify” the collected data because we know our users are busy people and do not want to spend hours looking at individual tapes.

When do you think your solution is a better choice than classic tools for clickstream analysis (Google Analytics etc.)?

If someone wants to know what type of visitors you are getting, where they are coming from, or how many they are receiving, then Google Analytics (and other such tools) is for them. We focus on the user’s experience while browsing the site and collect more specific data pertaining to how users interact with a website, not just the basics.

What is your advantage compared to competitors such as RobotReplay?

We are constantly looking to add new features and interesting (but useful) methods of visualization. Many of these other services give visualizations on data, but they do not prove to actually be useful; we are looking to only add features that provide true value to the user and allow the user to glean information more quickly.

When can we expect to see Tapefailure on the market?

We are expecting to launch around mid-May, so keep an eye out.

What will the pricing for Tapefailure be based on?

Pricing will be tiered on (right now) 4 different levels, based upon the number of visitors (after setting a ratio, so the number of visitors could be anywhere from 1/2 to 1/10 of the actual number of visitors to a website, as we do not record every visit) to the website and the number of “tracker identifiers” used (these allow a user to define an ID so they know from where the tapes are being recorded).

Tell us about yourself, who are you?

I’m an 18 year old student and entrepreneur based out of Long Island, New York, USA. I am constantly working on new (and innovative) projects, but also do a bit of freelance work. I have been programming for over 8 years and have significant experience with both graphic/web design and programming (PHP/HTML/CSS).

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I had the opportunity to get a hold of the mayor of VisitorVille, Robert Savage, to ask him a few questions about the solution that he is offering.

How did you come up with the idea to present data in the way that you do?

I saw how computer games like Rollercoaster Tycoon could present a lot of information very effectively in a visual way, and made the connection to web traffic tracking.

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Guest writer: Hurol Inan, Bienalto

How do you think the market for web analytics in Australia differs from the rest of the world?

Australians tend to compare themselves to the US and UK. I believe we have fallen behind due to insufficient investment in the internet medium, and web analytics is directly affected from this. However, in recent months I am observing high levels of activity, regained optimism and momentum which may quickly turn things around.

On a scale from 1-10 when it comes to web analytics adoption, where would Australia fall?

I will answer this question in terms of:

• Tools: 8 - most have a tool of some sort
• Reporting: 5 - many report something but complain about suitability of reports
• Analysis and Interpretation: 3 - most struggle to interpret the analysis results and turn into actionable insights

What is the number one challenge for web analytics in Australia 2007?

The challenge differs by the level of adoption. In organisations, where the level of adoption is low, the challenge is to prove the value of Web Analytics to the management to secure funds and resources. In most cases these organisations are also doing not so well in the online platform. It would not be incorrect to claim if the organisation is not seeing the online as a strategic channel (if the management doesn’t get it), web analytics
enthusiasts in these organisations struggle a big time.

In organisations where the channel is strategic, web analysts are already gaining substantial benefits. Their challenges are twofold:

• 1) attracting the people with suitable skill mix and
• 2) involving traditional data analysts (who are tasked to analyse sales, campaigns, customers) be interested in the web data for a more integrated analytics initiative.

Why do you think SiteCensus is so popular in Australia?

SiteCensus (formerly RedSherrif) is the incumbent in Australia. It is a home grown solution that has been around for a long time.

The US vendors such as Omniture and WebSiteStory have only recently entered the Australian market within the last few years. WebTrends started up an office here in February 2007 (before they were represented by a distributor).

A couple of other factors that has played to the favour of SiteCensus are:

• 1) It has been marketed with a large organisation over the years and really well.
• 2) SiteCensus was often sold with NNR’s Market Intelligence solution which provides unique visitor numbers for a vertical industry by site and may contain demographic profiling information. Advertisers love this! When you bundle SiteCensus and Market Intelligence together, NNR’s offering is pretty unique.

However, NNR has not invested enough (or started investing late)in product development and has not trained their customers sufficiently on how to get the best out of their solutions. Hence they have started loosing ground to functionally richer US solutions in recent year or so.

For more insight into Web Analytics in Australia, read the results of Bienalto’s survey.

Hurol Inan is the Managing Director of Bienalto and is an internationally known consultant and author in online analytics and strategy.

Bienalto is a marketing consulting firm that assists organisations to focus on customers to achieve full potential of online marketing through data analytics.

Hurol publishes Attuned - a newsletter to share his views and resources on web analytics with others who are also passionate about getting the best out of the web through analytics.

Song: Men At Work - Down Under

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