Google Gobbles Blog Stats Program
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Written By Reprise Media | February 15, 2006 | Share This
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Move over, Google Analytics? Measure Map, an analytics tool designed for blogs (currently in an invite-only beta test), has been acquired by Google for an undisclosed sum from Adaptive Path. Jeffrey Veen, a Measure Map developer moving over to Google, wrote the announcement post on the official Google Blog, saying that Measure Map’s mission is still “to build the best possible user experience so people can understand and appreciate the effect their blogs - their words and ideas - can have.”
So now that they’ve got it, what is Google going to do with it? Google Analytics has proven too cumbersome for many blogs, but bloggers could take a shine to a free, streamlined analytics tool made just for them - at least when it escapes private beta. Dennis at Techdirt points out that if Measure Map is installed on blogs using AdSense, it could make it easier for Google to reduce click fraud, saying that “by being present at the entire end-to-end event stream…Google can accurately track user actions and cull out fraudulent activity.”
But reviews of the product are somewhat mixed. Granted, it’s still in private beta, but Techdirt reports that Measure Map “buggy and error prone,” and Techcrunch writes that the java-based program “seems to be more of a drain on Adaptive Path resources at this point than an asset - the service has lagged very badly over the last few month, becoming unusable for larger blogs (although it has improved significantly recently).”[sic] But while the deal itself earns a yawn from Paul Kedrosky - “It was either the worst kept secret going, or the most obvious tie-up ever” - he gives the tool a comparative thumbs-up:
“As a beta version Measuremap user, I prefer it to Google Analytics for blog traffic. The latter is more feature-rich, for sure, but without being customized to blogs it was too much trouble to use for the sorts of things I monitor on this site, like referrers, traffic, story hits, etc.
While Kedrosky adds that he still makes more use of a basic referrer log than any of the fancier analytics tools available, he also thinks that low-to-mid-range analytics makers who charge for their products - the Webtrends of the world - should keep looking over their shoulders to see if Google starts widely distributing Measure Map gratis.
Topics: Investment, M&A |