Google Analytics adds industry benchmarking

This week Google Analytics has added “industry benchmarking” as a beta feature to its web analytics tool. It will allow you to see how your individual web site traffic compares to aggregated data from other sites in your industry/vertical.

Additionally Google is launching a new data-sharing policy/opt-in that is key to success for data-gathering. Another benefit to electing to share your Google Analytics data is you’ll be able to use that data across other Google products. Handy, if you want to share your analytics data with your your Conversion Optimizer account.

While Google has many free services, it’s Google Analytics that continues to impress me. Not only is it already a fantastically powerful web analytics solution, but Google continues to add new features to it. Industry benchmarking might not be as powerful as Hitwise or comScore, but for those of us that want to research industry trends–and don’t have deep pockets–it’s a welcomed addition. (Of course, if few people opt-in their data, it won’t be that useful)

Source: Google Analytics Blog

Omniture Summit 2008

Also for 2008 Omniture will be organising it’s well known worldwide Omniture Summit conference. This years edition will be the launch pad for new product releases and the largest gathering of online marketing and Web analytics professionals, partners and industry leaders. The schedule is as follows:

• Salt Lake City, Utah March 4 – 7, 2008
• Sydney, Australia March 18, 2008
• Paris, France April 15, 2008
• Copenhagen, Denmark April 17, 2008
• London, England April 22, 2008
• Munich, Germany April 29, 2008
• Tokyo, Japan May 20, 2008

The conference offers breakout sessions dedicated to trends and best practices for vertical industries including automotive, B2B, financial services, media, retail and travel and promises attendees to insights from hands-on training labs, networking opportunities and in-depth customer case studies.

Web Analytics to be top performer in 2008

Web Analytics will be one of the top performing technology areas in 2008 according to Intrinsic Executive Search.

From the results of “The European Technology Survey” whereby over 100 CXO and VP Level Executives were questioned, Web Analytics performed very well along with other markets including Business Intelligence and Security Software.

- 91% believe Web Analytics will experience growth in 2008
- 54% anticipate high growth

Read more on e-consultancy.com