My Web Analytics Predictions for 2008

January 14th, 2008 by Lars Johansson

Pure Speculation

Many predictions are boring because they simply are way too general. “Web analytics adoption will increase in 2008.” Duh! I’ll allow my mind to roam free since for these predictions I simply don’t have enough data. I have access to the same information as you. These predictions are all based on information available to the public combined with a lot of imagination.

I’ve decided to go out on a limb when I present my predictions for 2008. That way it’ll be fun and a great chance for you to point your finger at me in a year. Conservative predictions for our industry are so 2007.

This is what will happen in 2008:

Omniture will acquire three companies: the first one at the end of Q2, the second at the end of Q3, and the third in the middle of Q4. Potential targets: Coradiant; a web analytics vendor in Asia (migration of clients to SiteCatalyst would be the goal); another MVT vendor (just to quickly expand the customer base, clients would be migrated to Offermatica); an email marketing vendor (maybe ExactTarget. Though perhaps not the hottest market, an acquisition would mean diversifying); and ClickTale.
Omniture will discontinue HBX Analytics in Q4.
Omniture will merge Discover and Visual Site somehow in Q4.
Google will launch a site survey functionality integrated with Google Analytics. It will also introduce integration with Google Spreadsheets as well as visualizations from Gapminder.
SAP will acquire WebTrends. Though not an obvious move for SAP, WebTrends will be a bargain for SAP.
Coremetrics will hire Goldman, Sachs & Co. to find a buyer. No deal will be finalized in 2008.
IndexTools will compete a little less on price and a little more on innovation. The company will present some groundbreaking visualizations in Q4.
Microsoft will officially rename its web analytics solution from Gatineau to Microsoft Live Analytics. Google will only lose a tiny minority of Google Analytics users to Live Analytics.
Avinash Kaushik will write a blog post named “Web Site Measurement Hacks”. Eric T. Peterson will respond by writing a blog post titled “Are Your Insights XY or ZQ?”. Nah, now I’m just being silly. Scratch that one.

What do you think? Pick my predictions apart or give me a round of applause.

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Posted in Web Analytics | 6 Comments »

Comments

Dennis R. Mortensen Says:
January 15th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
What a set of exciting predictions! But you do know that I will follow up on them – in 12 months time
… and by the way. I think I can confidently say that you should expect something SUPER exciting from IndexTools _before_ Q4.

Cheers..

Dennis R. Mortensen, COO at IndexTools
http://visualrevenue.com/blog

Lars Says:
January 16th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Dennis, I wouldn’t expect any less from you.

I could have made some very safe and uninteresting predictions, but I prefer it this way.

I will enjoy your review in January 2009.

Judah Says:
January 18th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Those are some juicy predictions for 2008 Lars! From my investigations of VisualSite and Discover, OMTR will have a lot of work of to do to merge the code bases. LOL about your EP/AK blog prediction too.

I’m looking forward to following up in a year to see which of our predictions come true!

All the best,
Judah

Mike Sukmanowsky Says:
January 19th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Ahh I forgot about ClickTale! I’ve used the software a few times now but what I struggle with is drawing a conclusion from watching only a few visitors.
My business analysts like it as a tool to assist in usability testing where you sit a group of users down to complete a task and record 100% of them as they move along but outside of that, I think you can make some very dangerous conclusions!

No brainer on #2, HBX just doesn’t make sense at Omniture.

On #3 I’m hoping they mix more of Visual Site into Discover than Discover into Visual Site .

#4 no comment either way. Google always seems to take on a direction I never thought they would so I won’t comment .

#5 SAP acquiring WebTrends is interesting but I don’t see it for 2008. Web analytics itself hasn’t matured enough yet (and this may be my biased Canadian perspective coming into play).

#6 I can see your argument on Core, but I’m not certain who the buyer would be. Don’t know enough about Core’s management team to understand their motivations to sell.

#7 Never tried out IndexTools, but I’d love if they allowed me to demo their product on my blog!

#8 Gatineau was an odd choice for them, call the product something based on the Canadian city where the original software company was based? Gotta have “analytics” somewhere in the title there.

Great read!

Thomas Says:
July 24th, 2008 at 2:46 am
No mention of Unica Netinsight?

Rockey Nebhwani Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I read your predictions earlier this year..as we approach end of the year I have compiled key events in this space in year 2008. I hope you will find it interesting in context to this post – http://infosysblogs.com/multi-channel-retailing/2008/12/web_analytics_year_2008_in_ret_1.html

My Web Analytics Predictions for 2008

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