San Francisco — Search engine heavyweight Google on Wednesday announced a major upgrade to version 6 of its “Urchin” Web Analytics Software has eventually comes out of beta after a delay of about three-and-a-half years.
Google purchased Urchin Software in March 2005 through an acquisition deal, and in the following years dedicated most of its attention on the company’s Web-hosted product, the free Google Analytics, anyone can now download a 90-day free trial, at Urchin.com.
The postponement was primarily because the company concentrated on the free offering of the software which is available as a web service by the name Google Analytics.
For scores of search engine marketers who recollect the name, Urchin created the basis of Google Analytics, which was released in 2005. But, contrary to Google Analytics, Urchin is designed to be installed on clients’ servers, an option that is preferred by some corporate customers for various reasons, such as hosting their data on their premises and not on the vendor’s data center. This makes up Urchin the better choice for certain applications.
You may perhaps use it if you:
- Want to analyze your firewall-protected content, such as an intranet;
- Have 5 years’ worth of old server log data to analyze;
- Need to know if your sites’ visitors are getting “Page Not Found” (404) errors;
- Need to have your site’s traffic data audited by a third party;
- Need to create custom reports or integrate with other tools, like a CRM system; or
- Need to integrate your e-commerce logs directly with Urchin.
It is no secret then in Wednesday’s Urchin 6 announcement that Google maintains to recommend Google Analytics for most users under most situations, as its marketing-oriented reports are more advanced than Urchin’s.
“We continue to recommend Google Analytics for most users and most circumstances, as its marketing-oriented reports are more advanced than Urchin’s. You can even use Google Analytics and Urchin together at the same time and have the best of both worlds,” reads the posting on the Official Google Analytics Blog.
“You can even use Google Analytics and Urchin together at the same time and get the best of both worlds.”
Organizations employ Web analytics software to track, calculate, and analyze their Web sites’ traffic. This data can help the company decide how to change its site’s layout to increase sales, as well as evaluate the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns.
At present, Urchin is only available in English, but nine other international versions are expected to be available soon.
Urchin was originally sold as base software with several add-ons priced separately. Urchin 6 was originally scheduled for release in late 2004, and is available for purchase from authorized resellers for US$2,995, Google said.