Google Analytics vs. Microsoft adCenter Analytics - Round 1 - Usability
April 8, 2008
The amount of forensics you can do on your data
Being able to understand the “why” and “how” of observing patterns in data is key to success to performing solid website analysis. I noticed that Google Analytics did a good job when it came to giving me the name of the source, durations and narrowing it down. However Microsoft was limited (even though it’s a Beta version) at best and you really have to dig to find the information you want. Have a look…
I find a lot lacking in the Beta release from Microsoft because Google Analytics is at a point where it is very user-friendly so in my opinion from a usability standpoint Microsoft could learn a ton from Google Analytics in terms of application functionality.
The graphs are too small; the views that are offered lack the thought of the people that will be using it. It wasn’t designed with people in mind. Most times people want more options of analysing and sorting data then just “view contents of the group” or “view segmentation by item = Age, Gender, Occupation or Geographic Location”. In terms of segmenting data for marketing efforts I feel that this is the bare minimum which Google Analytics offers more then vast amounts of information.
Because the term “Web Analytics” is turning into a big keyword for the next version of the web, an internet based on intelligence, intelligent web applications and the people who use them in everyday life, naturally many people believe that you just need to pick a tool, install and configure it and start tracking traffic but if Web Analytics is used wisely it runs deeper then the tools you use and it is a practice of applying tools and knowledge and business smarts to develop your business online.
Luc
Installing your Microsoft adCenter Analytics Tracking Code
April 3, 2008
I got an invite today to start using Microsoft adCenter Analytics Beta edition. After using Google Analytics for the last 6 months I must say that while I am curious about Microsoft adCenter Analytics there is just something about Google Analytics that cannot be beat.
So how easy is it to install Microsoft adCenter Analytics? Well it is pretty easy. They offer a wizard to help a person who doesn’t understand coding to install it automatically which is something that Google Analytics may want to think about. But if you want to install it manually you need to place the following code before the </body> on your website.
<script language=”javascript” type=”text/javascript” src=”http://analytics.live.com/Analytics/msAnalytics.js”></script>
<script language=”javascript” type=”text/javascript”>
msAnalytics.ProfileId = ‘XX##’;
msAnalytics.TrackPage();
</script>
From there you can begin to track your traffic using Microsoft adCenter Analytics.
