immeria

Free or Fee: Gladwell vs Anderson

2009-06-29T22:41:00.001-04:00

In a previous post, I explained why WASP isn't free, and recently, I promoted my consulting services with the headline "Web Analytics brain available - for a fee" and I've done my share of inflamatory posts about the utopia of "Free".

Malcolm Gladwell, author of three books I loved reading (The Tipping Point, Blink! and Outliers), replies to Wired editor Chris Anderson and adulated author of "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" (honestly, I read the article and had enough).

I go with Daniel Tunkelang, blogger at SmartDataCollective, who wrote "Malcolm Gladwell to Chris Anderson: No “Free” Lunch", which led me to the New Yorker article "Priced to sell: if free the future?". Tunkelang says:

Ultimately, Gladwell dismisses Anderson as a “technological utopian.” That’s harsh, but I think it’s on target.

I agree.

In his usual style, Gladwell brings very good arguments to go against Anderson's views:

Free is just another price, and prices are set by individual actors, in accordance with the aggregated particulars of marketplace power.

Why are the self-interested motives of powerful companies being elevated to a philosophical principle?

Apple may soon make more money selling iPhone downloads (ideas) than it does from the iPhone itself (stuff). The company could one day give away the iPhone to boost downloads; it could give away the downloads to boost iPhone sales; or it could continue to do what it does now, and charge for both.

Hmmm... Enough said :)

Google Analytics targeted by hackers

2009-06-24T12:14:00.003-04:00

The twitersphere is on fire over a Google Analytics support forum thread. I was chatting with Eran Ben Sabat, a London-based fellow web analytics consultant who said "have you seen the latest with the GA code? The regex thingy sending trafic to a another domain". I relayed the info on Twitter, which was picked up by Eric Peterson, then started to spread like crazy.

This post is a summary of several threads and resources about this exploit.

Is my GA being hacked?

The thread shows several accounts of websites using GA were the default implementation script was replaced with a gibberish string of JavaScript code. It's fascinating to see the thread evolving with the help of people contributing various hypothesis: ftp security, software hole, etc.

Have you been infected?

Visit your site home page
Do a view source
If the typical Google Analytics script code block contains a string of weird characters, your site has been infected
(another similar exploit uses an IFRAME, so check your source code for something like "document.write("<"+"i"+"f"+"ram"+"e"..., which creates an IFRAME referencing a site named "trughtsa.com")

Tip: To help identify if Google Analytics isn't behaving as expected, you can install the Web Analytics Solution Profiler. If it doesn't show Google Analytics while you expect it, check your source code.

The exploit is as follow:

htttp://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js is being change by the regex to
http://91.212.65.148/ga.js
which runs http://91.212.65.148/image/pfgt.php
this executes an Adobe Reader exploit BID27641 and BID 34169 (Symantec call this the Bloodhound.Exploit.196)
files with typical names such as login, index, default, home with PHP, ASP or HTML extensions are targetted

Bloodhound.Exploit.196 is a heuristic detection for files attempting to exploit the Adobe Acrobat and Reader Multiple Arbitrary Code Execution and Security Vulnerabilities (BID 27641) or the Adobe Acrobat and Reader Collab 'getIcon()' JavaScript Method Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (BID 34169).
http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2008-080702-2357-99

We now have an explanation of the exploit, but we still don't know how the code is being altered.

The injection

Some accounts reports as much as 25% of Joomla (a popular platform running on Apache servers with PHP) forum posts being about this and several other threads discussing similar issues. The reality: the injection is an exploit on week security settings on Apache HTTP servers and unencrypted FTP passwords saved by popular tools used for editing websites. Once a client machine is infected, all commonly used tools are harvested to collect more unencrypted FTP passwords and contribute to the dissemination of the attach.

Is it a Google Analytics security issue: No
Is it a Google Analytics exploit: Yes

This hack is not a Google Analytics security issue, it is not an Apache or PHP issue either. It is a server security & maintenance issue. Some fellow tweeters have pointed this out, however, the onsite malicious javascript code is disguised as Google Analytics code.

...as the onsite malicious javascript code is disguised as Google Analytics code, then and it may have implications for the trust in the Google Analytics brand. Thus it might be worthwhile for Google investing resources trying to help web developers fix and also prevent from happening in the future.

The 1st message in the forum thread was on June 16th, and the 1st Google employee reply came a week later, on the 23rd, merely saying it is NOT a Google Analytics security issue and pointing to some general best practices on good website management. But none of them really address the specifics of this exploit.

The fact Google Analytics is so widely used, and the script code block is always identical, certainly made it a target of choice for this exploit.

Closing the door

Google suggests to look at those resources:

Interesting, but certainly not to the point, instead, do this:

Start with your own computer. Scan it with anti-virus and anti-spyware tools.
Once you are sure your computer is clean, change all site passwords. (You might want to change computer and network passwords too.)
Make sure you have the latest Adobe Acrobat reader
Now keep the new passwords secure. Don’t use auto-upload features of your web site editors. Enter passwords every time you upload new content instead. Use SFTP instead of FTP if possible.
Now remove the malicious code (the iframes/regex) from your files on server. The easiest way to do it is upload a clean content from a backup.
Scan your server directories for any new/suspicious files (don’t forget to check hidden files). Remove anything that should not be there.
If your site was flagged by Google, request a malware review via Webmaster Tools.
Regularly check your site with diagnostics tools of your choice

Hope that helps!

A tale of Web Analytics near miss

2009-06-19T14:18:00.000-04:00

Wikipedia defines a "near miss" as being an "unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage - but had the potential to do so". I was reading Jim Novo's latest post about Analyze, Not Justify, relating a conversation with a client that didn't became one... I wanted to do such as post for a while and I figured out "what the heck, I'll share one of my experience". Of course, in doing so I will try to "protect the innocent". So here goes.

The agency who wanted to be

I was contacted by a traditional marketing agency (call it "ABC") that also does websites and online campaigns. They wanted me to help out with one of their clients (let's call them "XYZ"). Since I offer to "coach and empower web agencies" this sounded like a perfect opportunity. Furthermore, I had been referred by one of my very best client.

The agency wanted me to jump right in: fix that darn web analytics tool; make magic happen. At the same time, they were talking about very ambitious web initiatives for XYZ and how they would measure all of it. I smelled "risk ahead" and I was able to convince them to start with a Web Analytics Maturity Assesment which you can view bellow (click for larger view):

The outcomes from the assesment were pretty clear, both from an agency and a client perspective... Also, the goal was to go from virutally nothing and jump more than 1 level in the Maturity scale, which is also an important risk.

SixSigma DMAIC to the rescue

Knowing the risks is already a pretty good start. To alleviate those risks I addressed the project from a SixSigma problem resolution perspective (which I always do anyway). Starting with a Definition of clear objectives, then Measuring the actual state of the union (then doing Analysis, Improvement and Control). We went on to define and clarify business objectives, identify the stakeholders and the required metrics, identify which info would need to be communicated in dashboards and how often, etc.

The wall

Measuring the actual state is where we found the "politiwall" - the political brick wall. XYZ is the canadian branch of a much larger organization; a typical multi-national, multi-product global corporation. They are obviously accountable for success in Canada and as such, they maintain the site content and define the marketing strategy. However, figure this scenario:

CMS tool is under the responsibility of head office, but content and accountability for success is XYZ responsibility
XYZ tools are developed by local partners, one of those partners being the ABC agency. Accountability for success of those process-driven tools is also under XYZ responsibility
Head office standardized on Omniture and did a fantastic implementation. They obviously want to offer a global perspective on all XYZ websites. This is a perfectly valid approach.

As I noticed in a previous post, multi-national head offices tend to use "best of breed" tools and "impose" a level of standardization. On the other end, local branches of those larger organizations tend to use Google Analytics more, for a number of reasons: locally perceived control, costs, and maturity.

In the actual context:

XYZ is not allowed to add Google Analytics to the CMS framework
XYZ is not allowed to add Omniture tags to locally developed applications
Yet, we want to have a complete view of the user's interaction with the whole XYZ ecosystem (i.e. all components of the online presence, including the CMS, tools and promotional sites)

We are clearly facing a governance and ownership issue here. So tell me, what would you do?

My recommendations

Considering XYZ accountability for success, here are the next steps I'm envisioning:

Demonstrate the direct and logical correlation between "accountability for success", "means to measure" and "power to take action". Escalate at the appropriate level (beyond current local director level).
Since the headoffice have an implementation and best practice document, it could be reviewed to accomodate for more flexibility for local sites (something I've seen with another client who standardized the core implementation but allow for a level of flexibility on over 200 websites)
Make sure to follow the implementation guidelines and best practice in implementing locally developed tools, with collaboration of the head office to make sure they are comfortable with the implementation

Point #1 is critical. If you don't solve it now it will always come back to haunt you!

Help me help you

Latest status was "the business case was presented to head office" and I'm waiting for feedback. At one point I had the impression the agency was putting the blame on me for failing to deliver. I had not insisted on starting with the right approach they would certainly be right (in fact, I'm refusing to work with a client if we don't start with a Maturity Assement). As an independent consultant, my role is to tell things as they are and guide you in the right direction. But you are ultimately driving and taking the decision to follow my recommendations or not.

I think this would make a great case for the "Creating and Managing the Web Analytics Culture" course I'm tutoring!

Any thoughts and feedback welcome!

Web Analytics Tuesday, July 7th, sponsored by AT Internet

2009-06-17T20:45:00.004-04:00

In March we joined force with "Utilisabilité Québec" to discuss the relationship between usability and analytics.

In July, the Web Analytics ~~Wednesday~~ will be on a Tuesday! Nicolas Babin, COO for AT Internet, will present a Case Study featuring European client Ryanair. This content was originally presented together with Dara Brady, Head of Advertising at Ryanair during Internet World London this past May. The case study will demonstrate how AT Internet delivered against Ryanair’s 2009 online priorities: site redesign and conversion.our event is sponsored by AT Internet.

When: Tuesday, July 7th, 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: the greatest place to host a WaW: Le Local
Where: 700 William, Montréal, H3C 1P1, 514-397-7737
>>> RSVP at WebAnalyticsDemystified service <<<
Sponsor: AT Internet

17:00h: Welcome and networking, beer & tapas!
17:30h Summary of eMetrics in San Jose and industry news (Stéphane)
18:00h: AT Internet presentation (Nicolas Babin)
...: Networking...
20:00h: Event end

Please sign up now!

Forrester web analytics forecast: WASP data

2009-05-27T10:23:00.000-04:00

Forrester just released the "US Web Analytics Forecast, 2008 to 2014". John Lovett, Forrester analyst, predicts the US web analytics market will reach $1B by 2014, with a steady and amazing growth of 17% per year!

Collaborating with Forrester

I had the chance to collaborate with John Lovett & Forrester by providing WASP market data:

Data from the Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP), a service that detects analytics solutions installed on Web sites, projects that market penetration for Web analytics is roughly 58%. WASP also estimates that 78% of total market share is currently held by free vendor solutions. Further, among sites that have installations of fee-based Web analytics tools, 37% also have free tracking products installed, thereby duplicating their measurement efforts.

Data referenced in the Forrester document was based on a sample of 210,820 sites analyzed over a one-month time period between February 2009 and March 2009.

I you are a vendor seeking market share information or competitive data, an agency looking for business development opportunities or a market analyst, contact me to tap into the unique and valuable WASP market data.

My take

I got my hands on an advanced copy of the research and my feeling was simply "wow!" I can already hear people complaining "yeah, right... I knew that", the difference here is the level of detail, the trust and confidence you can put in this 10 pages document. The abstract says "the promise of web analytics needs an adjustment" and goes on to detail the specific points justifying such a statement.

"The future success of web analytics is dependent upon experts who translate raw data into insight". If only a fraction of professional services are delivered by vendors, the market for experienced consultants will continue to be in high demand.
"Data becomes the addictive drug because it can demonstrate success, predict outcomes, and establish business cases for new endeavors.". Web analytics is not a matter of ROI, it's a matter of accountability.
"The importance of integration is accentuated": during initial client meetings there is always a point of integrating everything... they quickly hit a roadblock because their web analytics maturity is simply not there.
"Optimization technology will be the next frontier": I would rather say "automation & optimization". We should always aim to automate tasks and transfer our knowledge into intelligent systems that will free us to work on the next challenges.

Being an independent consultant, I particularly like the statement that "professional services will be delivered from non-vendors providers".

Web analytics brain available! (for a fee)

2009-05-27T09:05:00.002-04:00

Over the past couple of years I have been very involved in the web analytics community, tutoring the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics, providing feedback on the Yahoo! Web Analytics forum, writing on my blog, answering a huge amount of emails, even providing free tools to make your web analytics life easier.

Brain juice

I've often said it: consulting is selling brain juice, and the amount of juice you can extract is scarce and valuable.

As much as I like to help out and collaborate whenever possible, my workload is constantly at a high level and my expertise is often being requested to give feedback on products or the market in general. Speaking at eMetrics and other conferences, my nomination to the WAA Board of Directors and the Web Analytics Association Leadership & Technical Excellence Recognition (WAALTER) award I recently received have significantly increased the number of requests I get. Being an independent, free spirited though leader, it just makes sense to realize what I’m selling is my knowledge, experience and expertise. I just can’t afford to spend a lot of time providing free advices and feedback...

Offer for agencies & vendors

Long story short, I have something to do in order to prioritize my work and maintain a level of professionalism and ethics with the people I'm working with:

Retainer: We will define the scope and objectives of our collaboration and I will provide monthly feedback about your product, the market, social media & news, etc. A six month agreement and a fixed monthly fee will also garantee I won't play the same role with any of your competitors.
Ad hoc: I will gladly work with you, provide feedback and information about your product or the market on an hourly basis. In this model, I can still work with any other partner, including competing ones.
Package: With a minimal monthly agreement the hourly rates can be reduced.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss this offer privately.

WASP v1.25 released

2009-05-22T15:11:00.002-04:00

WASP v1.25 is now approved at addons.mozilla.org and had been available from WebAnalyticsSolutionProfiler.com for a couple of days.

Another round of bug fixes and minor enhancements toward WASP v1.50, coming up in June.

What's new

WASP for Analyst:
- Now makes the distinction between Google Analytics (legacy Urchin code) and Google Analytics Urchin Software
WASP Pro:
- Bug: First install now sets default database correctly.
- The crawler now logs special WebTrends meta-tags (WT.*)
- Fixed condition where detection rule optimization was failing (fixed performance issue)
- Crawl report now handles on-click to filter rows correctly
- Crawl report now open in current window instead of popup
WASP for Market Research:
- Fixed escaping of values when custom tags are found
New/updated tools:
Enhanced:
- Now supports Firefox v3.5.*

Please take 2 minutes to submit a review at addons.mozilla.org and visit the UserVoice page to suggest improvements and cast your vote.

Web Analytics Association Leadership & Technical Excellence Recognition (WAALTER)

I was humbled and honored to receive this prestigious prize at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. The WAALTER award "recognizes companies and individuals who are leaders and innovators in the field of web analytics. The objective is to encourage creative and innovative projects or initiatives that embody the web analytics industry’s best practices."

Get WASP v1.25 update now!

Follow-up on WAALTER award

2009-05-13T16:43:00.000-04:00

Last week I did a short post about the Web Analytics Association Leadership & Technical Excellence Recognition award I got at eMetrics. I think I look pretty good on this picture, along with Jim Sterne :)

The WAA just sent a newsletter to its members saying:

In the individual category, the WAA awarded first place to Stéphane Hamel of Immeria Consulting Services. In 2008, Hamel demonstrated leadership through his development of the Web Analytics Solution Profiler, WASP. With ongoing commitment to web analytics, Hamel directly influences the direction and success of his company, and inspires change throughout the industry.

You can view the full article on the Web Analytics Association website and download my case study.

Web Analytics Maturity Model

2009-05-13T11:12:00.001-04:00

I have continued my work on a Web Analytics Maturity Model focused on the business and change management aspects rather than being around the technological usage level of web analytics tools, which is quite different from Gartner's model or the recently proposed WebTrend DM3 approach.

My work is heavily inspired from Thomas Davenport Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning, a must read for all web analyst and their boss. It also leverage business analysis concepts, a topic I've been tutoring at UBC for some time and as a member of the International Institute of Business Analysis. Last week, at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, I presented the actual state of this project. You can find the presentation below or on Slideshare.

Web Analytics Maturity Model

View more presentations from Stephane Hamel.

This model is the result of over 20 years of experience working for very diversified companies, including the last 15 playing different roles in several web projects, and several years in web analytics. The model as also been "tested & calibrated" with various companies in Canada and abroad.

Speaking & Consulting

I'm open for speaking opportunities at marketing, business analysis or web analytics conferences. I can do an independant, unbiased, complete evaluation of your web anlaytics maturity and provide clear recommendations on what needs to be done in order to strenghten your current web analytics practices and help you move to the next level.

"We used Stéphane's Web Analytics Maturity Model as support for developing a (Web) Analytics roadmap and strategy. It is a long road to implement culture change in a large organization - especially when you are on IT side. It already triggered interest; that is a good start!"
Michael Notte
Senior Analyst - Web Team
Sales & Marketing Business Applications
Toyota Motor Europe

Please Note

The presentation is not available for download and I would kindly invite you to contact me before re-purposing or using it. The Web Analytics Maturity Model is an important element of my consulting practice and a couple of slides can't give justice to all the hard work, experience and thinking behind it.

WASP receives WAALTER Award at eMetrics

2009-05-05T02:15:00.000-04:00

Today, at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit being held in San Jose, I received the first ever WAALTER Award for my work on the Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP). The Web Analytics Association Leadership and Technical Excellent Recognition (WAALTER) award "recognize companies and individuals who are leaders and innovators in the field of web analytics. The objective is to encourage creative and innovative projects or initiatives that embody the web analytics industry’s best practices."

This prestigious price means a lot to me; it's not only a peer recognition, but also a strong encouragement to continue my work on WASP. Combined with my election on the WAA Board of Directors, it highlights my involvement and strong commitment to the Web Analytics Association's role as an industry voice.

I also wants to congratulates Predicta, who won the WAALTER award in the corporate category, and thank the judges who took the time to evalute the submitted entries and saw the value of WASP.

MindMeld: from Omniture Summit to eMetrics San Jose

2009-04-21T20:04:00.002-04:00

The first ever MindMeld was an invitation-only event held at the Omniture Summit 2009. I had the chance to be invited by Matt Langie, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Omniture. Under the coordination of John Lovett (Forrester Research) and Jim Sterne (WAA and eMetrics), we formed into roundtable groups to discuss hot topics of the day.

MindMeld is an interactive discussion forum of industry peers designed to foster review, debate, and offer proposed resolutions to issues inhibiting industry growth.

Social Media impact & measurement

I was pleased to be a session leader for social measurement. With representatives from iTunes, Warner Music, Norwegian Cruise Line, Best Buy and Brian Watkins (aka @omniture on Twitter), the session was broken down into three main blocks of about an hour each:

scoping and establishing the breath of discussion,
identify critical events, technologies and necessary actions
report key takeaways, resolutions and call to action (from an individual perspective, for Omniture and the industry as a whole)

The video of our takeaways is now available on the YouTube channel WAMindmeld. Mine is shown bellow:

MindMeld at eMetrics: the conversation continues

I'm glad to be part of it again, but now, as Jim puts it "that was only the beginning. Now, it's time to take action." The topic will be "What needs to happen to move the industry forward?", nothing less. In my new duties as one of the member of the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors, I guess this will be on my mind pretty much all the time!

Talking about eMetrics, I will be speaking twice, first about the web analytics maturity model I have developed and put the test (also check this post), and a second time on a panel about "The Softer Side of Metrics - Is it Hot in Here or is it Just Me?" with my friends Eric Peterson and Jonathan Levitt. Eric will talk about Twitalizer, Jonathan will talk about 4Q and I will cover WASP.

WASP: Germany's top 500 sites by OgilvyBrains

2009-04-19T09:37:00.001-04:00

A nice survey conducted by OgilvyBrains, the strategic consultancy arm of the Ogilvy Group in Germany. Here's some interesting abstracts from their press release (original PR in German):

OgilvyBrains analyzed the websites of Germany’s 500 largest companies in terms of turnover and the top 50 national banks as to whether their website uses a tool-based web controlling program to analyze customers and visitors to the site. Over half of the companies surveyed did not have this facility. This means the company does not have access to detailed information about customer and visitor behavior on their site and, hence, cannot improve its performance and functionality accordingly.

...

According to Bert Klingsporn, the WASP, the Web Analytics Solution Profiler, survey has one main conclusion: “The consumer’s heavy Internet use is not mirrored by adequate corporate web controlling in Germany. Often it is little things that stop potential customers completing their purchase. Recognizing and understanding these barriers and adapting the website accordingly can lead to billions in earnings potential.”

Even if we account for some margin of error in the way WASP for Market Research to its analysis, the percentage of web analytics adoption still appear to be lower in Germany than in some other countries. WASP won't detect purely server-based solutions, and it might have missed smaller, very localized players. However, we can safely state that less than 50% of the companies surveyed are empowered with analytics and taking fact based decisions based on their web users browsing behavior.

Web Analytics Association Board of Directors

2009-04-17T11:26:00.005-04:00

It's official: I've been elected to the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors. I want to thank everyone who participated in the election process, congratulate newly elected board members and extend my respects to all the very talented people who ran for a position.

What's a director anyway?

Beyond boasting the title of "director", responsibilities includes financial and legal aspects of a non-profit organization. But more importantly (to me anyway), it is to contribute to the development of programs and activities that are consistent with the mission of the WAA. So, you might ask, what is the mission of the WAA?

The Web Analytics Association leads and supports the members by providing quality education, developing standards and best practices, conducting research and advocating for issues that advance the industry.

There is a lot of work to do if we want to accomplish everything that's in the above phrase. But as with any complex endeavor - such as bringing the web analytics culture to an organization and succeeding at it! - we can define SMART objectives and accomplish one step at a time toward the larger goal.

Listening to the Voice of Customer: you!

I want to invite you to get in touch with me if you have opinions & ideas about the WAA and how we can serve you. I already have a couple of ideas, and some of you already expressed very good points in private emails. This will be a great experience for me, I'm sure there will be challenges and lots of work to do, and my commitment is to do my best to get closer to the spirit of the WAA mission statement.

WASP v1.22 released

2009-04-16T14:02:00.000-04:00

WASP v1.22 is awaiting approval on addons.mozilla.org but is already available from WebAnalyticsSolutionProfiler.com.

I'm continuing my monthly release cycle. A smaller release this time, but there are a couple of more important things coming up for WASP v1.30, coming up in May.

What's new

This release includes minor enhancements and bug fixes:

Bug fix: invalid detection when complex rules were involved. This caused some tools, like Omniture SiteCatalyst HBX, from being detected under specific conditions.
WASP Pro: the crawler now handles wildcard rules in robots.txt and catch errors for invalid rules (this was preventing the crawl from working correctly in some rare cases)
WASP for Market Research: tools will now be logged only once even if multiple occurrence on same page and beacons won't be logged anymore
New tools: NetMonitor, Silverpop Engage, Marketo

As always, your feedback and suggestions are more than welcome! Please take 2 minutes to submit a review at addons.mozilla.org.

See you at eMetrics San Jose

I will be speaking at eMetrics San Jose, May 4-7. I will be on a panel about "The Softer Side of Metrics - Is it Hot in Here or is it Just Me?" with my friends Eric Peterson and Jonathan Levitt. Eric will talk about Twitalizer, Jonathan will talk about 4Q and I will cover WASP.

I will also present the concept of "Web Analytics Maturity Model" I have developed.

Get WASP v1.22 update now!

(P.S. Results are in, I have been elected to the WAA Board of Director!")

Job: Web Analytics Specialist for online gaming

2009-04-14T22:43:00.000-04:00

Another job in the Montreal region: Morris Mohawk Gaming Group offers online gaming services to users in North America.

They are looking for a Web Analytics Specialist. The ideal candidate will be someone smart, enthusiastic, and technical, with a passion for data and the know-how to drive web optimization success. The candidate will be equally comfortable drawing business conclusions and presenting to key stakeholders, as they are analyzing web data and dealing with IT partners.

To give you a hint of the type of job: "We have 42” TVs on every wall playing sports and poker non-stop. The traditional “dark and gloomy office” has no place at Morris Mohawk Gaming Group." :)

Why WASP isn't free

2009-04-09T23:57:00.000-04:00

The good

I'm receiving tons of positive feedback about WASP, the community of over 10,000 users is providing great ideas and suggestions which I'm carefully taking into consideration. I'm very proud of this tool. I've spent countless nights and weekends working on it over a period of 18 months.

But WASP isn't just the result of this hard work, it's also the culmination of over 20 years of experience ranging from development, system administration, DBA, web development, analytics, and about every aspects of launching a business.

The bad

Over the years I've been known to be very "verbal" about my opinions. I have matured and grown some (a lot!) of gray hair. I think my temper is much better than it was years ago, but when I receive something like this... it hurts:

My suggestion is to take WASP extension off your "Free Ressources" (sic) page, or perhaps change the name of that page.

It's a shame you no longer offer a free version that doesn't time-out since it's clearly the crawler that is the power-tool aimed at WDAs. We have a bunch of staff who every now-and-again need to check an Omniture variable or two to help in locating reports, but will never require a crawler.

Oh well, bon chance!

I wish I could talk to this person, who knows, maybe he or she will read this and get in touch?

Did you know?

Lots of people think there's a whole business behind WASP. In fact, it's the result of a single person's dedication and passion for web analytics: me! I'm doing a mix of consulting, teaching and developing WASP because I like what I do, working 40, 50, 60 hours a week. I'm a strong advocate of sharing and collaboration. But I'm not stupid either.

My take

Here's what comes to mind:

20 minutes is plenty of time for occasional use and seeing if WASP is useful, clearly, this person wants to use WASP for professional purposes, and he or she is not alone, there's also a 'bunch of staff" using WASP...
If $49 USD is too much for you, than stick to a manual method, use debuggers and proxies (the license of most of those tools isn't free, btw), or use the free Omniture JavaScript debugger
WASP ROI is pretty straightforward: save time, eliminate non-value added activities, increase your knowledge. And that person tells me it's not worth 49$!? The crawler including in WASP Pro, at $499, is a tiny fraction of the cost of alternative solutions...

But most importantly

I'm not selling a software, I'm selling my knowledge.

If you use WASP and find it useful, please consider purchasing a license!

Web Analytics in the automotive industry

2009-04-02T16:24:00.002-04:00

David Iwanow, from Australian based The Lost Agency, have done an analysis of the use of web analytics in the automotive industry. He reviewed 21 automotive manufacturers and found that nearly all of them are using web analytics on their corporate sites. A figure ahead of most other verticals. Omniture is clearly leading that space (73% of the sites), followed by Google Analytics (13% of the sites). About 30% of them are "double dipping" (using more than one web analytics solution), most of the time Google Analytics. This number is consistent with other analysis I've done myself. Get the complete web analytics automotive industry report.

Headquarters vs localized sites

The study from The Lost Agency is interesting, and what I have also uncovered is the huge difference between the headquarter, official website and localized sites. For example, when I looked more closely at Canadian sites in the automotive space, I realized a number of them are using Google Analytics even if SiteCatalyst is being used on the corporate site.

Sites using Omniture SiteCatalyst:

Acura.com
AudiUSA.com, AudiCanada.ca
BMWusa.com
Fiat.com
Ford.com
GM.com, GM.ca
Honda.com
HyundaiUSA.com
Infinityusa.com
Kia.com
Mazda.com
NissanUSA.com
Subaru.com
Toyota.com
VW.com, VW.ca

Sites using Google Analytics:

Chrysler.com, Chrysler.ca
HyundaiCanada.com
Infinity.ca
Kia.ca
Mazda.ca
Nissan.ca
Porsche.com
Subaru.ca
VW.ca

Sites using WebTrends:

BMW.com, BMWusa.com, BMW.ca
Chrysler.ca, Chrysler.com
Ford.com, Ford.ca
Mazda.ca
Suzuki.com
Toyota.ca

Other tools:

Renaud.com (Nedstat)

No tools or log-only solution:

Acura.ca
Honda.ca
Lexus.ca

A matter of cost, maturity & control

Cost: I've been to a number of eMetrics conferences in the US, either as a speaker or attendee. What strikes me between the US and Canadian markets is the significant difference in investment in web analytics. Having worked with a number of Canadian companies, I have witnessed first hand how hard it is to justify the cost of high-end web analytics solutions. After all, a small US site is likely to receive more traffic than a large Canadian one! Different scales, and thus, the TCO are also very different when put against traffic and online revenues. If we think of multivariate testing, behavioral targeting and even voice of customer, Canadian sites are also generally less advanced than their US friends.

Control: The last element pertains to the justifiable and natural goal of uniformity across the brand, which often leads to a less flexible framework. The counterpart of that is the natural human tendency to try to solve problems and get information with the least amount of effort and political constraints, leading to "behind the door" implementation of non-officially approved tools, again, most of the time Google Analytics.

This point goes well beyond web analytics. I have seen a number of global organizations aiming to uniformly address the online channel while teams working on localized sites were striving to bypass those frameworks in order to gain flexibility and deliver on what they are accountable

Maturity: The other consequence, or reason (we're in a catch 22 here) is the web analytics maturity level is generally lower in Canada. Lower maturity leads to fewer investment in web analytics and ancillary applications, which makes the free Google Analytics much more interesting.

The Web Analytics Maturity Model was the topic of my eMetrics Toronto presentation. I will present a longer version of it at eMetrics San Jose, coming up in early May.

If you are on the Canadian side, do you perceive those differences? Do you agree about my view of cost/control/maturity? If you are working in a global corporation with localized sites, what's the best model to balance control and cost efficiency vs flexibility and empowering the localized teams?

WASP v1.21 released

2009-03-27T15:07:00.002-04:00

WASP v1.21 is awaiting approval on addons.mozilla.org but is already available from WebAnalyticsSolutionProfiler.com.

This month also mark an important milestone. On March 5th, 2009, the Mozilla addons stats was showing WASP being used by 10,000 people!

What's new

This release includes a number of enhancements and bug fixes:

Omniture SiteCatalyst code version check, Report Suite and support for mobile version of SiteCatalyst
WASP for Analyst now shows a breakdown of Google Analytics cookie values
WASP Market Research smarter URL validation & faster scanning
Added detection of DART Spotlight/Floodlight, Yieldmanager, Yahoo! Ad, InsightExpress, Quigo, Coremetrics SurfAid and older versions of Predicta
WASP Pro now include a crawl option to "Log Dublin Core meta data" (DCMI)
Online help is now available (still being written)
WASP for Analyst sidebar - fixed long running code under specific conditions
WASP Pro crawler - fixed data export when HBX and SiteCatalyst were on the same page
Anomymous usage info now opt-in (instead of opt-out) and shown in license agreement

As always, your feedback and suggestions are more than welcome! Please take 2 minutes to submit a review at addons.mozilla.org.

See you at eMetrics

I will be moderating a round table discussion about "How Trustworthy is your Data/Data Quality from Web Analytics Tools" at eMetrics Toronto, March 29-April 1st. The round table discussion is limited to 10 people, sorry, no vendors, and the goal is to exchange ideas and share experience related to the accuracy of web analytics data and how to do quality assurance.

About a month later, I will be at eMetrics San Jose (May 4-7) were on the "The Softer Side of Metrics - Is it Hot in Here or is it Just Me?" panel with my friends Eric Peterson and Jonathan Levitt. Eric will talk about Twitalizer, Jonathan will talk about 4Q and I will cover WASP.

On both occasions I will also present the concept of "Web Analytics Maturity Model" I have developed.

Get WASP v1.21 update now!

(Don't forget! "Stéphane Hamel for WAA Board of Director!")

Stéphane Hamel for Web Analytics Association BoD!

2009-03-27T13:13:00.000-04:00

Beyond stats, web sites and businesses, there are people. After all, some things don't change that much even after thousands of years. We still want to get around the campfire and listen to the sage, help the apprentice, be part of the group and make our mark. Maybe that's why, in essence, I'm running for the Web Analytics Association Board of Director.

Why I'm running for the WAA Board of Director

The Web Analytics Association provides quality education, develop standards and best practices, conduct research and advocate for issues that advance the industry. Behind those objectives there are thousands of members, some new to the industry, some more experienced. Just people like you and me who seek to help their employer or clients make more enlightened decisions, share with fellow WAA members, learn and advance their career in a fast paced and exciting field that take its roots from a vast number of professional expertise: marketing, statistics, web development, management, communication, design, usability just to name a few.

The voting period for the WAA 2009 Board of Directors election is now open. Votes will be accepted from now until 23:59 GMT (7:59 PM ET, 4:59 PM PT) on Friday, April 10, 2009.

Credit where credit is due!

I've been a member of the WAA since 2005, and from the get go, I felt something similar to my early days in the Web: collaboration and sharing, excitement, passion, vision, innovation in a fast paced industry where I could grow, learn, and leverage my experience and expertise. When I realized Jim Sterne was behind the WAA and eMetrics, I knew I wanted to be part of it. I had met Jim many, many years ago, in the days of the Internet World Conference, long before the Internet Bubble Burst and the current economic downturn. He was an inspiration: motivating, great speaker, very open to share and collaborate. He was very knowledgable about the Web and marketing and already pushing for measurement and accountability.

Since then I met so many great people it would be too long to list, be it Bryan Eisenberg, Eric Peterson, Brian Clifton, Avinash Kaushik, Bill Gassman, Joseph Carrabis, John Lovett, Gary Angel, Jim Novo, Bob Page, Judah Phillips and a slew of consultants, practitionners and vendors. Now, look at the profile of the people running for the WAA BoD: Anil Batra, René Deschamps Otamendi, Daniel Waisberg, Rachel Scotto, Jonathan Levitt, Matt Langie, Nicolas Babin. I personally met all of them through the WAA and eMetrics, and the choice is very hard: great people who love what they are doing and have a passion for it.

Pay it forward

In essence, "pay it forward" is how I see my implication in the field. That's why I love speaking at eMetrics, being a tutor for the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics, why I'm blogging, Twittering and being very active on the Yahoo! Web Analytics Forum. It's why I've been organizing Web Analytics Wednesdays for over two years. It's also why I have developed the Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP): share my expertise and foster collaboration through the networking and great feedback I'm receiving out of it.

I had to chose a category for the election process. Am I a consultant, a vendor or a maybe more on the academic/research side? In face of the other great people in the consulting category, I don't know what the outcome will be, but the adventure is worth it, and I hope to get your vote!

Percute: Quebec city startup looking for talent

2009-03-23T09:07:00.000-04:00

I've known Stéphane Guérin since our days in the same MBA class. He is a very bright guy who developed a pretty amazing web analytics platform. Yes, even facing Google Analytics and the big players, there are still very innovative startups who can offer unique compeling values. Percute also offers web analytics consulting. You should definitely check it out at percute.com (in French). Pretty cool name also!

The job

In their own term, they are looking for:

A scientific mind with strong communication skills OR
A communicator with strong scientific abilities

Communication

Become a community advocate for web analytics, write case studies, blog posts, become a voice of the industry, promote web analytics, best practices and the services offered by Percute Technologies.

Web analytics

The scientific side of things. Work with clients as an ebusiness consultant. Understand their needs, offer strong innovative and problem resolution skills.Knowledge of web analytics isn't as important as the willingness to learn and grow in the field of web analytics.

Percute is looking for a dynamic person willing to work for a small company located in the very nice city of Québec. Contact Percute for more info.

Web Analytics Wednesday - March 25th, Montreal

2009-03-18T14:44:00.000-04:00

At last! The next Web Analytics Wednesdays is coming up to Montreal!

Event Details

Date:	Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Time:	5:00 pm - 7:00 pm and more
Place:	L'Amère à boire, a nice little micro brewery
Address:	2049 St-Denis, Montréal, 514-397-7737
RSVP:	Register online
Sponsor:	immeria

Come for the beer & tapas, meet super cool people and advance your career!

17:00h: Welcome and networking, beer & tapas!
17:30h: Official WASP launch! Demo and get a chance to win a free WASP for Analyst license!
18:00h: News from the field
18:30h: Networking...

WASP case study: incomplete page HTML

2009-03-13T09:20:00.000-04:00

Symptom:

The WASP crawler report shows several pages from a site with "None" as the solution name. However, these pages are actually tagged, and Google Analytics reports the data correctly.

In Firefox itself, the WASP status icon and sidebar show the pages as tagged with Google Analytics, but again the crawler reports "None" for the same pages.

Diagnostic:

When WASP crawl reports problems with tags on some pages, it indicates a potential issue that requires further investigation. Even if the page appears to be loading correctly at first glance, we need to seek for a plausible reason why WASP could have been unable to capture the tags only on some pages while others are being reported fine.

Resolution:

When loading some of the pages being reported in error, I noticed the page loading indicator shown in the status bar was taking a slightly longer time than usual even if the page itself appeared to be loading correctly. Also, the WASP status bar was effectively showing that Google Analytics was present. A simple "View Source" revealed something quite interesting: the HTML for the page is incomplete and stops right after the GA tags.

Conclusion:

This issue is a perfect demonstration of how a page might appear to be loading correctly from the user perspective, but still technically be in error. This seemingly minor issue does, in fact, have other side effects since a page that is not well formed HTML page can definitely impact your SEO.

Job: TD Insurance Web Analytics Expert (Montreal)

2009-03-03T09:57:00.001-05:00

The economy isn't bad for all fields of expertise. Here's another job in the web analytics business, in Montréal!

Are you an expert in Web analytics? Move your career forward with TD Insurance! At TD Insurance, a leading insurer on the Web, we are looking for people with 3-5 years of experience in Web analytics to fill a new position and join the best insurance team on the Web in North America.

The person in this position will play a defining role in the orientation of future Web projects. He or she will study and interpret data from different sources on our websites. Responsibilities include analyzing and converting data, and making concrete recommendations to key players.

Responsibilities

Identify successes, trends and areas of improvement by using web analytic data. Translate analysis into actionable recommendations.
Set in place activities (dashboards) to monitor for anomalies; report the anomalies when present and communicate recommendations to resolve it
Develop testing plan and platform for AB and Multi-variant testing and then work with project leaders to define, design, execute, analyze, results.
Participate in site re-designs and quoting engines enhancements as a measurements expert, identifying reporting requirements, monitoring the implementation process and evaluating post-launch reporting.
Measure and understand customer lifecycle and usage patterns in order to understand online client behaviour for better targeting and focus on projects on areas with the greatest profitability impact
Evaluate profitability of the Web Sales Optimization projects to support business cases
Assist in setting project Key Performance Indicators (KPI) objectives
After project implementation, evaluate degree of success based on project objectives
Ensure that the tracking structure continuously evolves to meet the web business needs and are adequate to measure the success of projects
Build confidence in data sources in order to ensure data integrity and reliability by developing processes and procedures.
Compile weekly and monthly metric reports from various data sources in order to see the evolution of periodic reports for historical and analysis purposes
Generate ad-hoc request (reports/data extracts) into insightful analysis and perform recommendations.

Skills and key competencies

Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, Information Technology or any other related analytical field
Experience with Omniture’s suite or similar and current analytics programs.
Familiarity with SAS and SQL and advanced MS Excel skills
Experience running complex analyses and developing complex reports
3-5 years of experience in Web sites analytics
Superior analytical skills and thinking, ability to develop creative solutions
Strong communicator, multi-tasker, customer-focused, business minded
Ability to work in a dynamic environment
Detailed driven and hands-on approach
Excellent in problem solving skills with an ability to provide solutions
Fluent in both French and English
Strong oral and written communication skills
A strong understanding of Insurance
Excellent Communication Skills written and spoken, French and English

This permanent position comes with a host of benefits, including insurance, bonuses, discounts on financial products, pension plan, etc.

If you think you have the expertise required and are looking for a stimulating work environment where discussion, commitment and pay equity are part of the package, please send your résumé and contact info to Jean-François Beaulieu [jean-francois(dot)beaulieu(at)TDInsurance(dot)com] so he can provide you with more details about this position.

Got interviewed at Sonicko.com

2009-02-26T11:09:00.000-05:00

Jeff Lawrence at Sonicko.com interviewed me about WASP.

He said "WASP (Web Analytics Solution Profiler) is a web analyst and online marketers dream for providing validation of web analytics implementation as well as a quick reference guide to various analytics tools among other features."

Read the full interview at "Interview with Stephane Hamel Creator of WASP"

Running for the WAA Board of Director

2009-02-24T20:39:00.001-05:00

My name:	Stéphane Hamel
My job title:	Web Analytics Advocate!
Company:	Immeria Consulting Services Inc.
Country:	Canada
Sector of activity:	Consulting/Academia
Complete profile:	http://linkedin.com/in/shamel

General background/bio

"Stéphane is a leading voice for web analytics, helping businesses and agencies understands the value of online optimization. He has been on both sides of the fence, client and agency, from small projects to complete ecosystem overhauls. Speaker at eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit and other conferences, tutor for the award-winning UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics and Business Process Analysis classes, creator of the popular Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP) and blogger at immeria.net. Stéphane is an active member of the Web Analytics Association since 2005, coordinating regular web analytics networking and educational events in Québec, Canada."

You should vote for me because...

When I graduated from college over 20 years ago I was quickly introduced to the Unix and Internet culture of collaboration and sharing. SMTP and IRC gave way to HTTP - I mean - email and chat were baby steps toward what the Internet is today. My technical expertise eventually reached a point where I wanted to optimize more than bits & bites and I started to push for processes and business optimization.

From the early days of the Web, witness of the Bubble, Web 2.0 and the evolution from logs to tags, from IT to marketing and beyond, all of those contributed to my passion for analytics. My IT roots evolved into an exceptional skill for analysis and synthesis of complex issues. The Internet culture still fuel my desire to share and collaborate. While I hated speaking in front of the class in high school I now deeply enjoy speaking at conferences. Poor grades in high school turned into good ones in college and exceptional ones in my eBusiness MBA.

Experience, passion, innovation, vision, sharing & collaboration: that’s what I’m humbly offering to you and the Web Analytics Association.

Major contributions I will bring to Web Analytics Association and its membership

I’m focused on three areas of activities: consulting, education and research. I’m striving to help businesses and agencies understand the value of analytics by coaching them to climb the web analytics maturity ladder, by tutoring 3 of the 4 UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics classes and Introduction to Business Process Analysis, by being the organizer of Web Analytics Wednesdays in Montréal, speaking at eMetrics events and other conferences and by sharing my voice on my blog.
Research takes the form of various initiatives to foster communication among Web Analytics Association members; contributions includes the WAA search engine and the popular Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP), tackling the challenge of quality assurance of web analytics implementations. My interests lies in education & research: formalizing the science of web analytics and seeking ways to make it easier and better.

The years ahead will certainly be as interesting as the recent ones. Teaching a full semester on web analytics at Laval University (Québec city), exploring new management concepts and envisioning new tools to make web analytics easier are some of my goals. Collaboration and communication will remain at the center of those initiatives.

Where will the Web Analytics Association should be in the next two years?

History repeats itself. The nascent web evolved into a marketing function and is now integrated within most aspects of the business. Web analytics also grew out of IT system logs to become a powerful tool for marketing optimization. We are now clearly at the crossroad of online business optimization and competing on analytics.

I think the WAA can do even more in the areas of education, standards and best practices. Issues of privacy are not going away, the competitive playing field is quickly evolving and there is still room for innovation. The current economic downturn is shacking the foundation. In a troubled economy, winners and losers are set apart by their capabilities to be bring original solutions, to deliver and act quickly based on factual information rather than succumb to panic and improvisation. The WAA is clearly on the winning side.

What is the biggest challenge facing the digital marketing industry?

We’ve certainly come a long way over the past couple of years. But now we need to move beyond marketing optimization to embrace business optimization. As Thomas Davenport puts it in his great book “Competing on Analytics”:

"three things are at the basis for competition: efficient and effective execution, smart decision making, and the ability to wring every last drop of value from business processes - all of which can be gained through sophisticated use of analytics"

This is where I think we’re headed.

If you are a member of the WAA, I hope you'll support my nomination. If you are not a member yet and you are involved in web analytics, what are you waiting for?

Sincerely yours,
Stéphane Hamel

immeria

Free or Fee: Gladwell vs Anderson

Google Analytics targeted by hackers

Is my GA being hacked?

The injection

Is it a Google Analytics security issue: NoIs it a Google Analytics exploit: Yes

Closing the door

A tale of Web Analytics near miss

The agency who wanted to be

SixSigma DMAIC to the rescue

The wall

My recommendations

Help me help you

Web Analytics Tuesday, July 7th, sponsored by AT Internet

Forrester web analytics forecast: WASP data

Collaborating with Forrester

My take

Web analytics brain available! (for a fee)

Brain juice

Offer for agencies & vendors

WASP v1.25 released

What's new

Web Analytics Association Leadership & Technical Excellence Recognition (WAALTER)

Follow-up on WAALTER award

Web Analytics Maturity Model

Speaking & Consulting

Please Note

WASP receives WAALTER Award at eMetrics

MindMeld: from Omniture Summit to eMetrics San Jose

Social Media impact & measurement

MindMeld at eMetrics: the conversation continues

WASP: Germany's top 500 sites by OgilvyBrains

Web Analytics Association Board of Directors

What's a director anyway?

Listening to the Voice of Customer: you!

WASP v1.22 released

What's new

See you at eMetrics San Jose

Job: Web Analytics Specialist for online gaming

Why WASP isn't free

The good

The bad

Did you know?

My take

Web Analytics in the automotive industry

Headquarters vs localized sites

A matter of cost, maturity & control

WASP v1.21 released

What's new

See you at eMetrics

Stéphane Hamel for Web Analytics Association BoD!

Why I'm running for the WAA Board of Director

Credit where credit is due!

Pay it forward

Percute: Quebec city startup looking for talent

The job

Communication

Web analytics

Web Analytics Wednesday - March 25th, Montreal

Event Details

WASP case study: incomplete page HTML

Symptom:

Diagnostic:

Resolution:

Conclusion:

Job: TD Insurance Web Analytics Expert (Montreal)

Responsibilities

Skills and key competencies

Got interviewed at Sonicko.com

Running for the WAA Board of Director

General background/bio

You should vote for me because...

Major contributions I will bring to Web Analytics Association and its membership

Where will the Web Analytics Association should be in the next two years?

What is the biggest challenge facing the digital marketing industry?

Is it a Google Analytics security issue: No
Is it a Google Analytics exploit: Yes