Amazing Analytics

There have been many interesting articles recently about Google and how, with our new “real-time web”, they have flawed search technology. Most of it relates to earlier posts I've made about Linked Data and the ways we now search for data instead of documents, yet the applications are not yet fully developed. Now Google is working on a real-time search integration tool with Twitter. We will hear more on that (and I will probably do another post on it), but my knee jerk response on this is both positive and negative. Positive – they need to do it. Twitter’s search capabilities (even with acquired “Summize” and # subject search) are limited but there is no other way to see what is happening in the moment. Miracle on the Hudson, attack in Mumbai - the genesis of the news is always via Twitter as somebody actually witnesses the event. Negative – the noise factor on Twitter! Now once they are able to filter the Twitter noise and give high quality real-time search results, it will be great for Google. An interesting piece in the NYT today had the first non-trade journal article I’ve seen that addresses the topic, although as recently as April there were rumors that Google would buy Twitter. That doesn't seem to be the case now. They are developing their own real-time engine, and while integrated they still plan to check the links before indexing them (unlike Twitter), although this is all still in the planning phases. Google claims they will have higher quality real-time searches, even if they take a few more seconds to process.

Another thing that gets better and better is Google Analytics. Other people who use it have probably noticed it as well but I don’t see much press about the quality and quantity of useful, analytic information available to anyone with a website. The depth and detail is just remarkable! Google Analytics posts every domain who ever visited, the time and date, every individual company that visited with its own server (domain name), every carrier used to get there, the city and site of origin, the time of day, how many seconds were spent on each page, how they explored the site and what attracted them, where they searched (or linked from) to find the site - with everything broken down into percentages, quantity, graphs and charts. It really is amazing. At minimal cost, a web site can be optimized so easily. The owner can see everything happening. This will get better and better, and as more people realize and use the capabilities, they will flourish. Learning to utilize this information to generate more business is the ultimate goal. The more easily sites can be tailored (in terms of price, products offered, and communication with customers) to enhance the user experience; the closer we get to our Hybrid Economy.