Martech: Martech is Marketing Logo
  • Topics
    Digital Transformation
    Marketing Operations
    Data
    Customer & Digital Experience
    Performance Marketing
    Marketing Management
    Special Reports
    All Topics
  • Conference
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • What is MarTech

Processing...Please wait.

MarTech » Data » Google’s Urchin Is Closing – Why & What To Do Next

Google’s Urchin Is Closing – Why & What To Do Next

This week marks the end of an era for Google Analytics, maybe also for the whole web analytics market place. Google announced that Urchin Software will no long be sold by the company. Urchin is the software company that was originally acquired by Google and ultimately was transformed into Google Analytics, the most used analytics […]

Daniel Waisberg on January 22, 2012 at 12:58 pm | Reading time: 3 minutes

This week marks the end of an era for Google Analytics, maybe also for the whole web analytics market place. Google announced that Urchin Software will no long be sold by the company. Urchin is the software company that was originally acquired by Google and ultimately was transformed into Google Analytics, the most used analytics tool in the market.

Differences Between Google Analytics & Urchin?

Below is a list of the main differences between the tools:

Data Collection: While Google Analytics uses a JavaScript to collect data, Urchin Software analyzed log files, which enabled tracking a few things not possible with JavaScript tags, such as: data reprocessing, search engine crawler activity, failed requests to server and unique IP tracking.

Data Storage: Urchin had the advantage of keeping the data inside the organization. However, Google Analytics also provides an opt out of sharing the data even between Google products (learn more about it in this page).

Maintenance: Urchin required more technical maintenance as the tool was hosted in-house. For example, if servers were added, removed or changed Urchin should also be configured to adapt to these changes. As Google Analytics is in the code of the website and triggered by the client, it requires very rare maintenance (only when it comes to adding functionality to the code).

Why Is Google Retiring Urchin?

Since Google Analytics was launched in 2005, the company has turned it into its flag product. Google has kept Urchin and developed it slowly since then, but the vast majority of features were added only to Analytics, including Adwords, Adsense, WebmasterTools and other important integrations and features.

I find two main reasons for this shift:

First, the product is not the focus of the company: as we saw last year, Google has been closing several initiatives and products as they believe “greater focus is crucial if we’re to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities ahead” (quote from link above). Urchin was never a Googley product, it is hard to implement and very technical in its nature.

Second, Google Analytics is a fountain of gold. As Google Analytics data is saved on Google’s servers, it is more interesting to Google to push it. Even though I believe the data is safe and well managed, it is a precious resource for Google.

Alternatives To Urchin

Log file analysis tools have been disappearing from the market in the last few years, most probably because the JavaScript tools are easier to implement. This became more prominent as the web analytics community has branded itself as a marketing profession, raising the necessity to have simple tools that enable the end-user (marketer) to make changes, rather than IT professionals.

Wikipedia provides a list of web analytics software, which includes both log file and JavaScript tagging tools. While we see several open source tools using log files, only one of the main players still use it: IBM Unica NetInsight.

Closing thoughts

In an interview with Paul Muret, CEO & Co-Founder of Urchin and currently Director of Engineering at Google, when asked to share what was the one thing that he believes they did right, he said: “our value was to democratize the web feeling, trying to make something complex really easy to use.”

The Urchin team did just that (with the help of Google), they turned a niche market into a mainstream necessity.

Below is a short video with Brett Crosby, Urchin co-founder, where he talks about the Urchin acquisition.

[youtube width=”551″ height=”403″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7dChszv8Hs[/youtube]

 


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


New on MarTech

    Webinar: What ad channels work best for your brand?
    Governing AI: What part should marketing play?
    Attentive launches text-to-buy solution with Shopify’s Shop Pay
    Invoca announces new integration with Five9
    10 reasons you should attend MarTech online (for FREE!)

About The Author

Daniel Waisberg
Daniel Waisberg has been an advocate at Google since 2013. He worked in the analytics team for six years, focusing on data analysis and visualization best practices; he is now part of the search relations team, where he's focused on Google Search Console. Before joining Google, he worked as an analytics consultant and contributed to Search Engine Land & MarTech.

Related Topics

DataPerformance Marketing

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS The MarTech Conference logo.

September 28-29, 2022: Fall

Start Training Now: Master Classes

Start Discovering Now: Spring



The SMX Conference logo.

Start Training Now:: SMX Advanced

November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes

Webinars

SEO Recon: The What, Why, and How for Building Amazing Links

Unlock the Cutting-Edge Potential of QR Codes

Why Finding the Right Platform is the Key to Winning in Email Marketing

See More Webinars
Intelligence Reports

Enterprise Marketing Performance Management Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Account-Based Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports
Featured White Paper

5 Steps: How Marketing Leaders Succeed with Digital Work Management

See More Whitepapers
Search Our Site

Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • Transformation
  • Operations
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Performance
  • Management
  • All Topics
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX

About

  • What is MarTech
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.