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Google Analytics is very very very nice (now)

By Jason Hoffman 18 August 06

Google Analytics, the result of Google’s acquisition of the San Diego-based Urchin Software Corporation, really really opened it’s doors to the world a couple of days ago, and it allows you to track up to 10 sites within a single google account (you sign in with your gmail account).

We were a good sized Urchin user before the acquisition and in many ways got screwed out of a site license after the acquistion. Combined with the first iteration of Google Analytics being largely unusable, I had a lot of choice words for them.

But.

I started using the new Google Analytics on a few of our sites on Tuesday just to see, and not only is data collection almost instant (well, actually about 2-3 hours behind) but as someone who used to pay $5-$198/domain for Urchin (depending on whether it was version 5 or 6, and how is was licensed), I’m absolutely thrilled with the fact that it’s free.

Yes it doesn’t do things like error tracking that can only come from log files but it’s great for 99% of the people out there.

Within our “circles” this both takes the pressure off of hosting companies to provide an analytics infrastructure (it’s not easy once you’re doing terabytes of log files) and I can see it doing to Mint what Google Calendar did to Kiko

So to the Google Analytics folks: Thank You for not sucking anymore.

And congratulations for knowing all about the traffic on my websites now. Everyday you get closer and closer to knowing everything don’t you? Just don’t get creepy


  1. I disagree (at least with the part about Analytics doing to Mint what Calendar did to Kiko). First, I don’t think Analytics and Mint overlap in function as much as Kiko/Calendar did. Mint supports plugins, looks much better (in my opinion), and isn’t hosted. Further, a main advantage Calendar had over Kiko, was that it was integrated with Gmail, an advantage that doesn’t carry over into the statistics world as well. It might even be in a negative thing if multiple people want access to the stats (of course, Mint will still allow only one login, but at least it’s not tied to your email account) as well as providing better brand control under your domain.

    — Sam Gerstenzang    733 days ago    #

  2. Methinks you forgive too easily. But that’s just the kind of guy you are.

    I’ve been using Mint since last October, Google Analytics since January, and there are also still a few surviving brain cells that recall when TextDrive had Urchin.

    Google Analytics is is no way a replacement for Urchin, nor will it prove a Mint Killer. Mint provides a level of detail and granularity in some ways similar to what Urchin did (in other ways, exceeding it), and GA comes nowhere close in that area. Plus, neither GA or Mint provide me with error tracking or bandwidth monitoring.

    And those are the two areas that I can use to track abuse of my site that might impact the server. I really do miss that. Some day, you may, too. But I also realize, you’re right, for 99% of customers, it’s probably more than plenty.

    However, I’m using both, and it still doesn’t provide me with what I need.

    — Reid    733 days ago    #

  3. My problem with Analytics, is that it’s hosted. That’s a show-stopper for me, and I can’t get past it. I love Mint, because I have complete control over it.

    — Jeff Wheeler    733 days ago    #

  4. Reid, there is an error tracker Pepper. It’s somewhat odd in that it still doesn’t actually look at error logs; instead it assumes you have custom 404 and 500 pages, and keys off their titles.

    Still, it does a darned good job for me.

    — James Bennett    732 days ago    #

  5. I also disagree that this is going to put Mint out of business….I just switched from Google Analytics to Mint because GA is bloated with features I’ll never use. I got sick of digging through that horrendous menu to find basic stats.

    Mint is not dead by any means.

    — Chris Griffin    731 days ago    #

  6. I agree with Jeff (#3). Google Analytics is hosted and simply put, I don’t trust google with my data. I don’t think Google is bad, its simply that someone who has zero obligation to me or my business has some of my venture’s most vital information. If Google changes policies or somehow does something I don’t like I have very little recourse or control. No thanks.

    Mint is a simple, elegant solution. My hope is that Mint continues to grow and eventually offers things like commerce tracking.

    — leslie    731 days ago    #

  7. I’ll quote Shaun Inman on this from his comment on a discussion over at 37signals

    When Google released Analytics for free, every blog and their brother shed a tear for poor, poor Mint. It’s now been almost a year since Mint’s launch—8 or so months since Analytics’—and Mint is still selling strong. More proof that Google doesn’t automatically dominate every market it enters.

    And for the record, I sell a plugin Pathstats which squezes out the last 2 drops of data that I can possibly get out of mint. It was what i needed, and I couldn’t get the same out of google analytics even if I wanted to (and yes I have had google analytics setup for the past 8 months as well)

    — Jehiah    731 days ago    #

  8. As someone who just purchased mint, I’m in agreement with the other comments above.

    Heck, the crap they pulled with Urchin after they bought it is reason enough for me to be wary about trusting them with much again.

    — PhilipJ    731 days ago    #

  9. I also don’t see this as a Mint killer. I’ve been using Analytics on several comercial projects over the last few months and Mint has provided a crucial niche role in the data analysis points Analytics slips up on.

    Analytics can’t be beat for campaign tracking and analysis but the data delays and clunky interface make for quick peeks into the immediate state of your site impossible. Which I think is where Mint has and will continue to pull it’s weight.

    — Craig    731 days ago    #

  10. Count me as another that will be dropping Google in favour of Mint.

    I’ve been using GA for about a month and their only service I hate more is Adwords. Interface design is so far below unusable you’d think they just tossed a couple of random people off the street into a room for the weekend to come up with it.

    Analytics is slow. I don’t want a 1 hour delay, let alone 3+ hours.

    Referrer stats include only the domain name with no additional depth.

    What gets people initially salivating are the pie charts and the map. Once you’ve seen either for more than a few days, they get old. Real old.

    Most stats are reported as percentages instead of a straight-up counter (very useless for so many of them)

    And have I mentioned Adwords is a scam?

    For me, Google = web search, usenet news archiving and mapping.
    But that’s about it. Can’t stand GMail either and the only reason I even keep an account is for a GTalk login to use with Adium.

    — Bruno    731 days ago    #

  11. Another Mint user and supporter here.

    I’ve had Mint installed since the day it went live, and it has proven to be a very useful, affordable solution for my very small business.

    I love the flexibility and openness of it all – the Peppers are really great, allowing you to tweak everything how you so desire. Plus, there are a lot of great developers out there that make Mint even better with their Pepper plug-ins. It’s a great community-based, feedback-driven solution.

    I’ve tried GA previously, and just didn’t get the same usefulness out of it.

    — Christopher Anderson    730 days ago    #

  12. I just started using Mint on my site yesterday and have been using Google Analytics for some time. I saw Shaun’s link to this post as well as his comments on Signal vs. Noise.

    I’m not sure I get the comparison…and I’d hope that those savvy enough to admire Mint would see the difference as well. Google Analytics provides me much different information, and it’s compiled on yesterday’s stats. Mint provides realtime stats on what’s going on NOW.

    I’ll keep using both.

    — Mark    730 days ago    #

  13. In terms of giving top-line stats, Mint is far superior than Google in many ways. It’s certainly less frightening and easier to understand to small business clients. Well worth the modest fee.

    — Ian Fenn    730 days ago    #

  14. Just echoing other commenters, for me mint will always be a better choice for the majority of my sites. It being on my own server is the first major consideration, but perhaps more importantly, given mint is under the care of one person, it is an agile and evolving tool, which can react to changes in the sort of stats we demand far quicker than any GYM product ever could.

    The expandability of mint through its API and peppers, and it’s community of users and developers also make mint a friendlier product for you to side with.

    I’m not saying google analytics is a lesser product, but for the particular demands of individual sites, it fails to offer the same tailor-made solution that mint does.

    — Stuart Frisby    730 days ago    #

  15. Analytics, while solving all of the business reasons, (simple to install, hosted, free, chock full of features) is still a horrible, horrible piece of software to use and understand.

    I prefer Mint, but then I have issues with that too. In my opinion there is still space for people to develop a killer product there, as no one has done that so far…

    Oh and your tab order on this form sucks.

    — Ben    730 days ago    #

  16. After using both on a heavy hitting site the obvious benefits of Mint are undeniable. The ability to log in and view who is on your site that instant, what pages they are viewing and all in real time far outweighs a lagging stats package such as GA.

    Mints versatility in allowing developers to expand it also allows for many great Pepper that wouldn’t be possible from a hosted stats package service.

    — Sam Brown    729 days ago    #

  17. There is even a GA widget for OSX users.

    http://dashalytics.rovingrob.com

    Unfortunately the next version is too mint like (read based on a pepper), so until i change the way it looks i shouldn’t really release it…

    — Rob S    729 days ago    #

  18. Why is Google interested in providing free web stats any way? Google´s core business is search and direct access to how your sites perform, will aid Google in determining your PageRank.

    You´ll have to decide for yourself, is this any information you will want to trust Google with?

    — Bergman    729 days ago    #

  19. Ah, well then if Mint keeps getting better, the fear is that Google will try to acquire it :)

    — Mariam Ayyash    728 days ago    #

  20. I’m loving to use Mint, accompagnied by Google Sitemaps (yes!) for daily usage. Bi-weekly or so, I check the GA data and monthly I do a classic logfile analysis with Websuxess. And after all that, I know nearly everything ;-)

    — Achim Schlemmer    726 days ago    #

  21. I have to say I find Google Analitics to be absolutely impossible to understand. Sure it has maps and charts, but what I want to know is who is linking to my site. Everything else is overkill. Mint giives me what I’m looking for, Google doesn’t.

    — Ben Whitehouse    722 days ago    #

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