Google has updated its Analytics software to include some features it should have had a long time ago.  Most importantly, you can now integrate your AdSense account with your Analytics account to combine website traffic details and earnings in one easy-to-understand portal. 

The Official Google Analytics blog outlined what they call more “enterprise-class” features to the software.  Many new features will be released as betas in the near future including advanced segmentation, custom reports, a data export API, integrated reporting for AdSense publishers, multi-dimensional data visualizations called "Motion Charts," and an updated user and administrative interface.  While some changes are merely simple upgrades to previous functionality, the AdSense integration and multi-dimensional data visualizations, or “Motion Charts,” are the most prominent additions.

The new Motion Charts function is the product of Google’s recent purchase of Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software back in March of 2007.  It’s more or less a fancy way to visualize your analytical data to distinguish various relationships you may otherwise not have seen.  You can add sophisticated multi-dimensional analysis to most Analytics reports by selecting metrics for the x-axis, y-axis, bubble size, and bubble color and then view how they interact over time.

The integrated AdSense reporting is currently in private beta, but should be rolled out quickly as it improves.  As you would guess, it lets AdSense publishers see their revenue and impression data alongside their site traffic data in the Analytics dashboard.  Since traffic details and AdSense data are often time correlated, it’s surprising that this functionality hasn’t been available since the beginning.  This type of integration will give publishers even more metrics to help them measure visitor activity and the performance of ad units, as well as discover areas of revenue potential on their websites.

Many of the other upgrades such as custom reports and advanced segmentation are meant to bring Analytics closer to enterprise level reporting.  Advanced segmentation enables publishers to isolate and analyze subsets of traffic.  Google says it provides “true on-the-fly segmentation of visits so that you can create powerful filters with a few mouse-clicks.”  Likewise, custom reports are reports you create, save, and edit to give you a specific view of your data. You can choose the information and metrics you want to see, organized in the way you want to see it, by using a drag and drop interface to populate an Analytics report.  These features let enterprise customers dig a little deeper into their data sets and organize a massive amount of data more effectively.  Like all Google products, these features and more are already available in your Analytics dashboard.  The only requirement is to easily link your AdSense account with your Analytics account. 

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm under Google, Internet.

Read more entries by Justin Montgomery.
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