The most notable feature of WebTrends 7.5 is its unique support for first-party cookies which company officials say improves accuracy.
Cookies are small files that store information on local computers – such as preferences when viewing a web site or storing a record of the pages you viewed within the site. They are typically used to help customize the web site the next time the user visits it.
But a more common, and sinister use, is to use the cookie as a trigger for online advertising and marketing. Adware cookies are synonymous with spyware in some quarters.
Conventional web analytics wisdom relies on third-party cookies, that either originate on or are sent to a web site different from the one currently being viewed, to track visitor behavior on a web site, for example their response to an online marketing campaign.
However, new industry research sponsored by WebTrends shows that third-party cookie deletion rates and rejection distorts metrics and hampers efforts to get an accurate analysis: cookie rejection refers to visitors blocking cookies on their machines while cookie deletion usually happens after the visitor has picked up a cookie from a web site.
WebTrends’ research, conducted earlier this year, shows that both practices however are on the on the rise, pointing to a four-fold increase in third-party cookie rejection with retail, telecoms and healthcare web sites suffering the most.
Both practices are being driven by the increased use of personal firewalls, proxy servers and new privacy settings available in the Windows XP Service Pack 2 release of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser software.
WebTrends 7.5 tackles the problem by redirecting web site tracking and measurement efforts at legitimate first-party cookies; so-called because they originate on or are sent to the web site currently being viewed and allow owners to retain ownership and management of their SSL certificates and the identifier information held. The system also uses backup methods that don’t rely on cookies, like sessionization.
WebTrends says its first-party cookie tracking is unique and is available at no extra charge to existing customers. WebTrends has also crafted a set of cheaply available professional services to help companies implement the tracking.
Other enhancements included in WebTrends7.5 include a new multidimensional reporting console, called Interactive Reporting Console, that comes complete with hierarchical drill-down and ad hoc query support, and through which a recently released best practices and training component called Resource Center can now be accessed directly and for free. Previously WebTrends customers had to pay $250 per seat
WebTrends 7.5 is available as both a hosted, on-demand service of a licensed on-premises software product.
Portland, Oregon-based WebTrends was one of the early pioneering web log analysis software start-ups before it was snapped up by enterprise infrastructure and security vendor NetIQ in 2001, at the peak of the Internet boom, for the princely sum of $1bn.
After languishing in NetIQ’s infrastructure management portfolio for several years, NetIQ finally agreed to sell the web analytics company to equity fund Francisco Partners in March this year.
WebTrends is hoping to start pretty much where it left off the last time it was an independent entity, only this time it is leading with a new hosted (ASP) model that seems to be bringing much success to rivals like WebSideStory and Coremetrics.
