Upgrade to Google "Intelligence" In Analytics

[JamesR]

Set up alerts that will tell you when and who caused traffic spikes:

Now, as you can see underneath that Custom Alert there is a new sub-section called "Major Contributors." When Google Analytics detects causes to a major change in traffic, this section will display up to 5 segments that have contributed to that particular change.

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/11/major-new-features-added-to.html

Some interesting possibilities for webmasters.

Now think about how Google can use this data for their own benefit....

[ukgimp]

hmmm. Yes they are going to know are important metrics for actual users and things that would prompt an SEO to sit up.

[Drastic]

BTW, sites with the same GA account are easily identified.

[Rupert]

Yes you are right.  My biggest concern is what google knows of all my GA accounts, and then how those sites link together, with site links PPC accounts, addresses, whois, credit cards, IP address's used to access them etc...

I have almost given up trying to hide some stuff, as I know however smart I think I am being, there will be a trail.

[PaulH]

I have almost given up trying to hide some stuff, as I know however smart I think I am being, there will be a trail.

Same here.
Was going to a lot of trouble to remove footprints, hide whois, multiple hosting, and using lots of accounts for analytics and webmaster tools. This was really slowing things down. And there were always some footprints so stopped bothering.

[Torben]

Anyone using Yahoo Web Analytics?

[Rupert]

Receptional is your man for that. He was in at the start with it and raved about it.  Never tried it myself.  You know him don't you Torben?

Good to see you on the forums again BTW Paul 

[PaulH]

thanks Rupert!

Torben, used index tools/yahoo analytics on same sites as we have google analyitcs. I personally prefer Google, probably because i was more familiar with it and often only want a  quick overview, when yahoo first took over index tools i also found the service painfuly slow - but probably improved.

Unlike googles 24hr delay Yahoo offers near real time stats. Seem to give very similar results. Yahoo is much better at some things, such as referring urls and exporting all data. As far as im aware google kicks ass at adwords and adsense integration. Yahoo also does age and gender demographics(not see this before today)