In-Depth
Kings of the World Wide Web
- By Alan Radding
- May 1, 2005
Forrester evaluates Web analytics tools by focusing on three areas: the vendor’s
current execution, business strategy and market presence. Here’s how they
rate the top sellers:
Sites with fast reflexes—Omniture or WebSideStory. In
the features arms race, Omniture and WebSideStory are neck-and-neck. For media
properties that can act immediately on site analytics, these two vendors win
because of their real-time reporting.
Marketing organization—Coremetrics. While not in sole
possession of the top spot this year, Coremetrics, with its superior data mining
and segmentation, makes it the favorite here. Its focus on customer profile
data and its connections to marketing partners make it a reliable hub for online
marketing execution.
Price-driven buyers—Sane Solutions and Fireclick. Sane
has built a reputation for reliable, no-nonsense products and support, and its
licensed solution is an inexpensive alternative for firms that want to own their
solutions. Fireclick, with a strong list of retail clients, becomes an even
more attractive choice with its acquisition by Digital River.
Existing NetIQ/WebTrends users—WebTrends 7. After years
of looking longingly at those bright, shiny, new ASPs, WebTrends customers now
have a product they can be satisfied with: WebTrends 7. |
Service-oriented Web sites—Coremetrics and WebSideStory.
Although their scores are nearly identical, Coremetrics offers the premier behavioral
analysis and segmentation tools. WebSideStory’s strong reporting is made
more potent by its powerful interface to Microsoft Excel, which provides superior
custom reporting capabilities.
Back to feature: Special
Report: Web Analytics
About the Author
Alan Radding is a freelance technology writer in Newton, Mass. He can be reached at [email protected].