42 replies to this topic

[Hichem]

Google has today announced that any users that are logged in to Google.com will be automatically sent to the https version of Google. This has the (presumably intentional) side effect that web analytics tools will no longer be able to see data on the keywords that people used to get to websites.

Full details and some resources in here :
http://googleblog.bl...ore-secure.html


http://searchenginel...y-default-97435
http://www.blogstorm...logged-in-users
http://econsultancy....he-experts-view


what do you think ?

[Jill]

We still do have data, just not all of it.

But yeah, it pretty much sucks. The more people that use Google products (and presumably it's growing every day) the less data we will have.

Still, we have no other choice but to deal with it.

[Hichem]

They said it won't exceed 10% ..
I'm already seeing "not provided" keywords in my Google analytic dashboard .. and it's not a small number ..

And as you said, it will be growing every single day, especially with the new Google plus ...

They are just killing other advertising programs if I understand well the reasons behind this change ;..

[Jill]

Mine's less than 2%. And I can see what URLs they landed on and infer that it's pretty much the same keywords everyone else (not signed in) are using.

At this point, it's a non-issue (at least for my site). As more people use and are signed into Google products, it could become a problem. Also, I haven't really looked at how much its affecting client sites, just my own.

[OldWelshGuy]

it is an issue for me as when signed in instead of going to google.co.uk I am now directed to google.com and am getting google products in $$ so the adverts are junk. I was looking for an item and had to go to another browser to get decent results.

Maybe it is because I have a gmail.com account rather than a googlemail (UK) one.

[Michael Martinez]

The impact on my sites doesn't even warrant being called a blip on the radar screen. I'm into the "less than 1%" range now. Maybe that will change over time.

[ScottSalwolke]

Do you think this could give rise to a legitimate challenger? Someone else offering a free analytics program that is as effective.

[zephyr]

It's not so much the actual impact, as it is the whittling away of the "do no harm" mentality.
kudos to Danny Sullivan for really jumping all over them on this.
But his suggested cure / beneficial impact of running all sites secure is just not feasible.

[Mikl]

it is an issue for me as when signed in instead of going to google.co.uk I am now directed to google.com

Interesting. I had the opposite experience.

When I was using the Chrome browser, I found that all attempts to go to Google.com were redirected to Google UK. This had nothing to do with being logged into Google. It just stubbornly refused to let me go near Google.com. It made no difference whether I typed the URL in the address bar or tried to access it via the browser's search feature - even if I changed the default setting for the search provider.

It's one of the reasons I abandoned Chrome (the other was the lack of customisability, compared to Firefox).

[Jill]

Do you think this could give rise to a legitimate challenger? Someone else offering a free analytics program that is as effective.

No, because ALL analytic programs won't have the data.

[OldWelshGuy]

That is the problem, Google themselves are preventing the data from transferring, they are blocking it.

It is clear that eventually google will roll this out, and we will not get any data from them unless it is a paid referral. No doubt google will then come up with a fantastic new product called 'googledata' which will reveolutionise your marketing by allowing you to see what traffic hits your site and converts.

A SNIP at $38,000 per year.

[Jill]

It's actually going to be over $100k a year. Most likely it will be available in the soon to be released Enterprise Google Analytics.

[Michael Martinez]

I hope Google stands its ground on this issue.

[OldWelshGuy]

It's actually going to be over $100k a year. Most likely it will be available in the soon to be released Enterprise Google Analytics.

Awe Cheers Jill, I was being sarcastic saying it would cost an arm and a leg. $100k, that is plain nuts.

[ScottSalwolke]

It's actually going to be over $100k a year. Most likely it will be available in the soon to be released Enterprise Google Analytics.

Isn't it supposed to be 150,000? That's going to make it pretty expensive for most businesses. For that cost they should supply you with photographs of visitors and their home phone numbers.