“WAA activity in Scotland started over 18 months ago, with a keen group of just three. There was very little awareness of analytics in the market and only one vendor, so we really did have an education challenge on our hands.”

Web analytics in Scotland

“It all began at the 2006 Emetrics Summit in Munich. Around 60 Web Analytics professionals, consultants and practitioners met for the first conference in Germany completely dedicated to Web Analytics.”

Web analytics in Germany

“Web Analytics Wednesday (WAW) in Sweden started with five guys getting together in an Irish pub with four days’ notice in May 2006. Less than one year later, nearly 200 people have expressed an interest in the six WAWs that have been held so far.”

Web analytics in Sweden

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WebTrends plans to release WebTrends Marketing Lab 2 in a few days. I have been abstaining from posting about it, but it appears to be OK to do so now.

Some of the enhancements in WebTrends Analytics 8.1:

• Java no longer required for viewing reports or scheduling exports.
• Easier to compare reports side-by-side.
• Enhanced FTP export for data integration.
• Easier to find and organize reports, templates and profiles.
• Enhanced auditing.

New products:

WebTrends Score uses a patented technology for measuring engagement and scoring online behaviors. You can use the insights to send targeted emails or personalize website visits.

WebTrends Visitor Intelligence is meant to be a solution that will help you gain deeper marketing intelligence. It is supposed to make it possible to explore data quickly and make it possible for business analysts, marketers and managers to perform data visualization.

WebTrends is supposed to release more information soon.

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Eric T. Peterson and Zori Bayriamova today released the report “The Problem with Free Analytics, Risks and Recommendations for Companies Planning to
Standardize on a Free Web Analytics Solution”. They’ve found in their research that users of free tools are generally:

• more likely to work with web analytics on an ad hoc basis
• less likely to have integrated web analytics into their decision making process
• more likely to lack the resources they need in order to be successful (42% of respondents reported zero FTEs dedicated to web analytics)
• newer to the field (58 % of respondents have less than 2 years of experience)
• working for small businesses (52% of respondents work for companies with less than 50 employees)

Their recommendation is that companies that use free tools should spend the money saved on the tool on recruiting the right talents.

Disclaimer: The data is only based on users in the U.S.

To access this research, please visit http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/research/

My question when it comes to free web analytics solutions and those who use them is this:

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do you lack resources because you have selected a free tool or do you select a free tool because you lack resources? I would be inclined to say it must be the latter. It could, however, also be an informed decision. Maybe the active choice to live up to the 10/90 rule (or the 10/20/70 rule for that matter)? But what if you spent zero dollars on the tool? Well, spend all your money on people and process instead!

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