CMS Watch has reviewed Google's free Analytics offering and finds it underpowered for many enterprise analytics scenarios. These findings were published in the CMS Watch "Web Analytics Report," which provides detailed, comparative evaluations of 13 major Web Analytics vendors.

Phil Kemelor served as lead analyst for the report. "Google can rightly boast that its Google Analytics service can process enterprise-level web metrics loads," said Kemelor. "But there's more to analytics than processing: integration, support, and documentation can be decisive to e-marketing success," Kemelor added.

Specifically, CMS Watch found:

- Google Analytics has no API to support the export or import of data into or out of 3rd-party e-marketing packages and enterprise data warehouses. This limits integration of website data with other sources of financial and customer data.

- Unlike more sophisticated analytics tools, Google Analytics does not allow customers to query against raw data. This limits deeper analysis into site visitor and segmentation behavior.

- Support comes only from consulting partners, who have no ability to modify the Google system itself. With comparatively slim documentation, licensees tend to rely on bloggers for customization advice.

- On the plus side, many enterprises have found value in employing Google Analytics as a back-up or supplement to other analytics packages, especially when looking for AdWords performance metrics.

- Google's most recent Analytics upgrade brought significant usability improvements that will challenge competing vendors to focus on their interfaces, rather than additional features.

Tony Byrne, founder of CMS Watch, commented on the competitive landscape, "If anything, Google increases the demand for competing analytics products from the likes of Omniture, Webtrends, and Visual Sciences by exposing new customers to the basics of collecting and analyzing data."

Labels: Web Analytics