Yahoo!

Google Analytics came out shouting “We are coming to get you” at the big 3 vendors (Oct 22nd) with the announcement of its new enterprise class features due to be released in the next coming weeks. Advanced Segmentation, custom reporting, a data export API and the long awaited integration with AdSense all feature on the list to really add some serious weight to the GA offering.

After IndexTools was acquired by Yahoo! and they announced that they would join Google in the “free tool” market space, we have been watching with eager eyes to see how Google would raise their game and from what we have seen so far it is a big improvement. The big win for most analysts will be the new Advanced Segmentation feature, which enables you to create your own dynamic custom segments based on multiple dimensions and/or metrics so you can properly slice and dice your data as you want it. Say goodbye to fixed dimensions and multiple profile settings and filters. If you want to find out more, Avinash Kaushik has written a great post teaching you how to become a segmentation ninja. Google Analytics Releases Advanced Segmentation: Now Be A Ninja!

Custom reporting is also another big benefit with a drag and drop interface similar to that of IndexTools allowing you to choose the dimensions and metrics which you want to see in your report. Concerns over data privacy will also be put to rest with the introduction of a data export API, giving users more transparency over the data which Google holds. There is also some new eye candy for all you marketers out there with a funky motion chart to give a new twist to data visualisation.

Some of the features such as AdSense integration are still in private beta for the moment, but I can’t wait to get stuck in. Mamma’s got a brand new toy to play with!

By Marty Carroll

How often have footie fans stood on the terraces, shaking their fists in the air and berating the manager’s choices? So-and-so shouldn’t be playing today, so soon after his injury! Can’t believe how much they spent on that useless goalie! Everyone’s a critic, it seems.

Now one football club will find out whether the fans really do know best. 20,000 members of MyFootballClub have chipped in to buy Ebbsfleet United, raising a total of £700,000 between them. The joint owners will vote on all major decisions, including player selection and transfers.

There is a theory that crowds are smarter than even the brightest experts, in certain circumstances. The book ‘The Wisdom of Crowds‘ by James Surowiecki says that four conditions must be satisfied for a group to be smarter than its most able members: it needs to be diverse so that members bring different information to the table, it needs to be decentralised so there’s nobody dictating the crowd’s answer, it needs a way of summarising opinions into a collective verdict, and the people in the crowd must be independent so that they’re not swayed by the opinions of others.

The new owners of Ebbsfleet United satisfy all those requirements, so they should be able to make much better decisions than the previous manager.

A similar selection process takes place online. Google rose to prominence, despite entrenched competition from the likes of Microsoft and Yahoo, because it offered a better user experience. It was faster, adverts were less intrusive and the results returned were higher quality. The crowd chose Google.

Internet users worldwide continue to pick the winners of the web, without consulting each other. They return to sites that offer the best user experience and neglect those that don’t. Because the internet offers near perfect information, price is a secondary consideration to the user experience. According to the wisdom of crowds theory, internet users can identify the best sites much more easily than experts can. That underscores the importance of listening to your customers, undertaking user testing and responding to their feedback. Only then can sites truly evolve. Only the fittest will survive.