Improvements to Urchin include improved geo-identification of Web site visitors, cross-segmentation options, and an embedded scheduler…
Google on Friday released in beta an upgrade of its on-premises Web analytics software for organizations that prefer not to use the search engine’s online analytics service.
Google says the software is similar to Google Analytics but you install and manage the software on your own servers. The company says the beta software “should only be used for evaluation purposes,” and it is not recommended for production environment.
“On its Analytics blog, Google just announced a public beta of Urchin 6.”
Urchin Software, like its predecessor Urchin 5, is built for organizations that have content behind a firewall or have restrictions against using an online service. The software is also good for performing ad hoc historical log processing, for storing Web analytics on local servers, and for gathering data for third-party audits, Google said.
Google Analytics provides a great way for web site owners to keep track of where visitors are going on their sites, and it is free. Its brother Urchin is getting a facelift, and Google is actually asking customers to pay for the upgrade.
Building on an already solid solution, Google points out these key upgrades with Urchin 6:
- More accurate geo-identification of visitors
- Cross-segmentation options similar to Google Analytics
- E-commerce and campaign tracking included (no longer requiring additional modules)
- Vastly improved embedded scheduler to more easily manage processing and re-processing jobs
- Improved user interface
- More robust log processing engine
“Why use Urchin instead of just putting the Google Analytics script on your pages?”
While comparable to Google Analytics, Urchin Software does have some differences for example:
- Companies hosting and managing the software themselves will have to configure the product and schedule log file processing according to their own requirements.
- Companies with sites hosted behind firewalls sometimes run into issues with a JavaScript call trying to burrow outside its network. Urchin is an installed solution so all calls can stay within the network.
- Urchin easily integrates with Google Analytics
- In addition, the software product does not have the most recent interface improvements and e-mail reporting capabilities added to Google Analytics in May.
Add that to the list of other software Google offers and Microsoft’s business model seems a lot less antiquated.
A 90-day version is available for download at:
http://www.google.com/urchin/download.html
When the software moves out of beta it will be available for $2,995.