Thanks for the comment. And I agree it is inspiring and I have something coming too. Though content not tool/product.

Interesting however was one of the other comments. A start up called Wripple is working on creating something that integrates with existing web analytics solutions. That I believe is the way to go because it is unlikely that enterprises will switch solutions only because of this factor.

SEM

Good to hear from good old Germany. Interesting point that you raise and makes total sense. I suppose Clicktracks once had a way to archive the previous state of pages so that you could compare before vs. current in the Overlay view. But your thinking goes more into a workflow, project, and team management system including versioning & all.

Unica does offer a product called Marketing Operations OnDemand which comes close to this. It is an online tool for workflows, project management, digital archive with versioning, etc. It is typically used by marketing agencies that collaborate with clients on developing designs, etc. It hasn’t been promoted (nor thoroughly reviewed) under this valid use case for web analytics yet though.

Thanks for adding the good point!
Akin

At Xchange last week, Bob Page from Yahoo (and formerly Accrue) made an interesting comment that resonated with everyone.

“He said that web analytics is often expected to be like accounting wheras in reality it is more like statistics. And statistics means you can never say anything with certainty.” (Not that 2 accounts ever arrive at the same result on anything)

This seemed a useful guideline for picking a piece of data that you can make sense of. Formulating a good enough theory and trying it out to see if it works.

Another good guiding light is probably to focus energy on things you can control vs. trying to measure and measure and measure.

Oh well, preaching to the choir.
Thanks for sharing your experience here!
Akin

We are 100% making this happen right now. The rules you outlined above are VERY similar to our internal modules that will provide insight and information from the data web analytic packages provide.

You’re right – its amazing. For 15 years web business owners have had to hunt around web metric reports and deal with “chart porn” to try to find why something happened and if it’s significant.

Just tell me WHEN something important happened and WHY it might have happened and WHAT might mean.

That’s what Wripple will do.

You want to help us create more modules? Everything we are doing is driving by potential user feedback, including deciding what to build.

-Josh

I agree wholeheartedly that the WA industry as a whole has been focused more on reports and KPI’s than the true focus – measurable positve changes…and the methodologies to take.

While being a fan and pro web analyst for over a decade now, the thought of some sort of Web Analytics AI has crossed my mind quite a few times.

That said, I havealways landed on the same issues (as also mentioned in my blog: http://bosilytics.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/obstacles-to-preparing-data/)

1) Preparation of the data (in your list you mention the web analytics tool, possible campaign management tool and\or paid search stats, competitive stats (compete, alexa) and good ole server log or operations management console.

Not that I have not integrated those before, but it is not for the masses…yet. Solution = Data Warehousing + Web\Business Intelligence

2) governance of metrics -
Technology aside, for a group of individuals to gather together and dictate their key opjectives is still a task best performed by a consultant (strong biased here, it is what I do for the mortgage!). Once that is done, the organization as a whole has to buy into the decision tree … and adhere to the priority issues addressed.

3) Advanced Analytics (multi-dimensional) -
This is where the PHD’s need to step in. however, I do not think anyone wants to take the ENTIRE analyst role away, just allow them to do what they do best … advanced analytics.

Cheers for addressing a pain point!