Google To Acquire Urchin Web Analytics Firm
Google is to acquired the Urchin web analytics firm, which provides both hosted and log-based tools for understanding how people are
interacting with web sites.
The Google press release notes that the company plans to continue offering the tools to site owners
and marketers, though it doesn’t say whether pricing would change. I imagine that Google might offer some versions completely free, in order to build greater marketshare. The
company has done the same with many of its other products, such as with the Picasa photo management tool.
One reason to jump into web analytics is that the search companies understand that as search ad prices rise, people will only be willing to pay more if they can justify
this by showing better conversions. Web analytics can help those who aren’t tracking conversions or who are tracking conversions at only a basic level to better understand the
full picture of what happens on their web sites. For more on this, see my Most Conversions Happen Offline; You
Need To Measure These! post.
This is one reason why both Yahoo and Google already offer free conversion tracking tools to their advertisers (Yahoo info
here; Google info here, though the
link to the page with more info on the tool has disappeared). Providing full web analytics may help companies improve conversion even more. Yahoo already owns web analytics
technology that it obtained through its 2003 purchase of Keylime. Now Google joins the club.
How much is the deal for? The Google release doesn’t say, but John Battelle reports a tip of the $30 million
range. SiliconBeat reports the same.
Want to discuss? Please join our forum thread, Google Buys Urchin.
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