Who uses Google Analytics?
GA specific, General web analytics, Urchin software specific July 14th, 2007
Its actually quite easy to detect which web analytics tool a web site is using - you can simply view the source code and look for the page tags yourself. Of course pure logfile analysers cannot be detected in this way, but those are now much less common due to their inherent limitations.
To save you the laborious task of manually checking html source code, there are now various tools available that can detect the javascript page tags for you. One excellent one I use myself is WASP - a Firefox plugin (by Stephane Hamel, Immeria blog) that shows you the web analytics vendor as you browse around the web. It can currently detect 32 different vendors including GA, Urchin, Omniture, Visual Sciences (Web Side Story), Webtrends, Unica, Clicktracks, Indextools plus many others.
Last week, I spent 30 minutes browsing around and found a number of household names now using Google Analytics and/or Urchin. These include:
ABN Amro, Blockbuster, BOC Group, Dixons, FT.com, Halfords, Interflora, GE Money, Lycos, Harrods, Citibank, MySpace, Nestle, P&G, Roche, Royal Albert Hall, Stena Line, TUI (Tompson)
What is interesting is the number of web sites that use multiple tools and there appears to be a pattern - US companies tend to be the ones with multiple vendor tags on their pages, while European organisations tend to only have one.
Any ideas on why this would be? Is it simply a sign of a more mature market that samples the benefits of multiple web analytics vendors? Please share your thoughts via comments.
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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July 15th, 2007 at 1:52 am
Thanks for the nod!
I have also noticed a very large number of sites using multiple solutions, more often then not, it’s GA along with something else. I guess anyone doing PPC on Google will be tempted to implement GA. Could it be that PPC isn’t as dominated by Google in Europe (i.e. there are more alternatives?)
Another thing that was really a shock to me: some companies claiming to offer WA solutions are not even implementing their own tool on their site!
S.Hamel
WA practitioner and blogger
http://blog.immeria.net
July 15th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Hi Brian, I can’t help but drop a link to a greasemonkey script I created in here, as it gives a small popup in the top right showing which analytics programs the site you’re currently viewing is using: the statistics detector greasemonkey script.
July 15th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
S.Hamel: Actually, in terms of pay-per-click advertising and search in general, Google is even more popular in Western Europe than in the US…
For web analytics adoption, it could just be that as GA is free and easy to insall/setup. People think “what the hell” and just give it a try along side their existing solution. However, my thoughts are that the US market is probably 1-2 years more mature than in EMEA - with US organisations trying out multiple tools as their requirements have evolved.
Being free though is a double edged sword. Some people just don’t take free products seriously, dumbing them down. However I am sure that will change over time. In fact, I used to be the same - preferring a paid product than freeware. I thought that paying was some kind of comfort blanket. I was a paying customer - I had rights, right?
Google happen to have a different business model based on advertising revenue. Google search is a free resource, as is Gmail, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Calendar, GTalk and even making money from Adsense. So as long as it helps advertisers, I guess you can expect products from Google to be free.
July 15th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Joost: Nice script, definately worth a mention.
If anyone has a script or knows of one that can detect WA vendors, please post here. So far, I have:
July 18th, 2007 at 10:23 am
I think one big reason for European sites to use just a free tool like GA is that they still are in “lerning mode”.
Most of my clients still struggle with zero staff for web analytics and therefore don’t want to spend any money on tools.
They have also found that they get the same information for free that they used to pay for with an other tool.
What they still need is help and education with the more sophisticated reports not jumping out of the box.
July 18th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Hi Brian
>>Any ideas on why this would be?
I think that is a very difficult question to answer or at least difficult to add some certainty to – however; I think it is commonly agreed upon that most European sales strategies (WA Vendors included) are less aggressive than those of our American counterparts. That said; we (as in IndexTools) actually recommend some leads to start out with Google Analytics - if it in fact fits their needs.
… and this is not just because I think you are a genuinely friendly dude Brian – but because I confidently believe that this (being honest and upfront) is for the better in the long run for any company (perhaps this could be the attitude of other EU vendors and consultants as well). When and if they hit a “reporting” wall with the capabilities of Google Analytics we hope that they turn to back to us.
OR it is simply because YOU are doing a better Job than your American colleagues
Cheers
.. and see you in San Jose I presume?
Dennis R. Mortensen, COO at IndexTools
http://visualrevenue.com/blog
July 18th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Pelle: I certainly agree that education is a key requirement needed in Europe.
Dennis: I am not sure I agree with your ‘less agressive in Europe’ comment. Perhaps not so many vendors have offices around here so it is less intense…
I know you love referring to GA as a starter product, but the latest version really isn’t. The clients I list using Google Analytics are testiment to that - they simply do not have basic requirements when it comes to understanding their visitor data. One theory I have for GA being successful for these clients (apart from being free of course!), is that the competition have focused too much on the development of features - at the expense of accessibility and discoverability of information. Having the latest and greatest features can be perceived as being better. But in my opinion that’s changing. The best tool is what gives you the greatest insight into your traffic for the least amout of resource on your part - staffing, implementation costs, user training etc.
My analogy is the use of MS Office - for example I speculate the vast majority of purchasers of that product never use Access or would even know what a pivot table is. Of course there are some users that cannot live without such features - a bit like Formula 1 requiring the most technically advanced cars. However for most web analytics users its about gaining actionable data quickly and easily - or getting from A to B in a reliable, efficient car…
Of course as the market matures in terms of its requirements, then tools need to advance and mature in their features to match this. We’ll just have to see
Yep - I am at San Jose in August. Anyone fancy meeting for a beer (Tequilla for Dennis - yuk!)?
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:25 pm
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September 5th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Has anyone considered it’s possible that many of these companies are now using multiple solutions because they’re taking GA for a test drive, comparing it to their paid solution? If GA meets organizational expectations it can free up around $15k annually, which can be allocated elsewhere. Taking that a step further, if you agree Europe is a bit behind on the Internet front, it’s easy to see why companies wouldn’t be investing limited resources into analytics. A free solution like GA opens the door to analytics for these cash-strapped, Euro companies and it does so without the worry of having to break the bank.
March 17th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
To answer the question - Who is uses Google Analytics (or any other analytics platform)? I decided to research using Stephan Hamel’s WASP on the Internet Retailer 500 to see what analytics platforms where the most popular. The full report can be found at http://blog.vkistudios.com/index.cfm/2008/2/22/Is-Google-Analytics-Taking-Over-the-World
The highlights were that over 37% of the websites were using GA, and almost 2/3 of them were only using GA. I plan to follow this study up with the Fortune 500 and others.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
John: nice work
Just to clarify for other readers, the Internet Retailer 500 are the top 500 US retailing sites as shown at: http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/list.asp
John - do you know how they measure/determine who is on their list?
March 24th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
As a follow up, the following briefing document from e-consultancy (Measurement, Analytics and Optimisation Briefing - March 2008), quotes Eric Peterson as:
“Google Analytics has been deployed in some form by around 60% of the companies in the Fortune 1000“