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10 Mar This post is from from my other blog here Just five days ago the Google Analytics program announced a new analytics data sharing feature. If you haven’t heard of it already, you’ll see the message asking you to ‘accept’ next time you log into your analytics account.
What’s really going on here? Whether you champion this data sharing or run from it will probably depend on your opinion of Google in general: If you are interested in getting as much free information as possible, this could be a good thing while on the other hand this program will give more powerful site visitor and transactional information to Google and for many people this may be another reason to distrust Google Almighty. Personally, I’m holding off on making a judgment call until I see more about how the program works and the benefits they say they will provide . . . There’s a long list of good things Google could do with access to this much transaction data but I have too many questions about how useful the data will actually be. Data Sharing Options Google is offering the option of sharing your analytics data three ways: 1) With Google products only This is the most vague option, as Google says sharing information with other Google products (not third-party products) will enhance the services they offer “as they become available,” and of course only businesses that share data get access to the enhanced services. This sounds like Google wants your help improving their services without telling anyone what they’ll get in return. 2) Anonymously with Google products and benchmarking services The benchmarking service allows customers to compare their data with other sites in their same or similar industry. The service also promises to let you compare your site’s data with unrelated industries. With some in-depth comparisons, you could determine if all sites in your industry are experiencing the same ups and downs in traffic and also provide insight into cross-promotional opportunities with other industries who may be booming while your traffic is flat. The data is not shared with competitors and is anonymized before being shared. Truth be told, I’m not sure why Google feels like they need to ask permission to do this, as their Privacy Policy already seems like it gives them carte blanche to gather and share user data however they want. One of the drawbacks I see is that only data from sites that agree to participate will contribute to benchmarks, so the data already seems skewed from the beginning. I have to question how valuable the data will be if only a handful of sites in any industry are participating. 3) No sharing at all So Google is letting you share a little with some undefined return benefit to you, share a lot with a potential benefit for industry comparison which may or may not be valuable, or not share at all. What do you all think about this? Does Google really need us to improve its services? Is the return for us worth it? Your email: Subscribe Unsubscribe
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