Posts by John Lovett (bio)

John Lovett | April 15, 2008, 11:39 AM
Free to Be...You and Me

It just keeps getting better. Today, Dennis Mortensen of IndexTools announced that Yahoo! will be offering the Web analytics services for FREE. There’s an agreement that will go out to existing partners and clients regarding the change in service level, but they will have exclusive access while Yahoo! prepares for the next rollout.

For those of you who recall 1970’s pop culture, one of my favorite Free to Be…You and Me skits involved the voices of Marlo Thomas and Mel Brooks as two bald babies trying to figure out their identities. Well, it didn’t take long for the babies to figure out who they were and apparently “Yahoo! Tools” didn’t spend much time deliberating either. The new alliance will threaten Google Analytics’ substantial market share as the current free tool on the market – AND – challenge commercial analytics offerings from larger vendors such as Omniture, WebTrends and Coremetrics.

I am truly excited to be engulfed in JupiterResearch’s 2008 Web Analytics Constellation report. IndexTools agreed to participate in this year’s review back in February, providing me the opportunity to assess the marketplace of free and commercial analytics tools on a level playing field. The completed study is scheduled to publish this summer and will include an evaluation of the following vendors: Coremetrics, Google Analytics, IndexTools, Lyris HQ ClickTracks, Nedstat, Omniture, Unica, WebTrends and WebAbacus.

This is an exciting time for Web analytics and I welcome your views or questions about the direction of our evolving marketplace. Feel free to write me at jlovett at jupiterresearch dot com.

John Lovett | April 09, 2008, 05:19 PM
Yahoo! Analytics

I received a short note in my inbox this morning from Dennis Mortensen, COO of IndexTools. We spoke last week about the solution capabilities, flexibility and future direction of the product, but he must have been grinning all the while. Today he provided a link to his blog announcing that IndexTools would be acquired by Yahoo! Just a small tidbit of juicy information, I’d say.

The financials of the deal were not disclosed, but the bigger question burning up the analytics blogosphere is; What does this acquisition mean to the Web analytics world? First, the IndexTools solution is a robust analytics platform that has been build from the ground up for flexibility and sheer analysis horsepower. Dennis describes the beauty of the tool by stating that it offers less canned analysis, which in turn requires analysts to think more about their data, facilitating discovery. Many argue that IndexTools v9.0 rivals Omniture’s SiteCatalyst at a fraction of the cost. And speculation abounds regarding how Yahoo! will bring this tool to market. My guess is that Y! will devise a “Freemium” solution, where some functionality is offered to small and mid-sized businesses at no cost and incremental services (like the v10.0 Rubix visualization tool) will be available at a premium.

Competition
News of this pending deal will undoubtedly attract the attention of free analytics providers, Google Analytics and Microsoft’s AdCenter. But rather than attempting to undercut their market share by providing yet another free tool for widespread usage, Y!’s Michael Wexler, unofficially states that they’re approaching the market from a different angle. The goal, he describes, is to enable users of Yahoo! products, (development, advertiser, shopping, and end user products) to analyze usage data in a comprehensive way to derive optimal use. He goes on to compliment Google Analytics’ success as a basic tool, but criticizes that it’s not designed for people that “really want to understand their data, nor is it aimed at the variety of ways people can work with Google (it ignores all that API stuff, for example).” Wexler views IndexTools as “the foundational start to understanding not just marketing and its impact on site behavior, but how to understand you online site usage to achieve your goals…”

Ahh, look out Omniture, eh? Despite the indication that Y! is not going after the free market, if this solution is available to any part of the market for free, it will undercut the market share of Google Analytics and MS AdCenter. However, it will not displace the need for enterprise solutions like Omniture, Coremetrics and WebTrends. These companies are building out their marketing optimization platforms, with a key focus on integration. Without buying into the vendor hype about “optimization”, the industry leaders have demonstrated that Web analytics can reside at the center of data analysis for marketing functions. Y! statements from Wexler (although unofficial), make it sound like they may be eyeing the integration component, if only for it’s own services. Other vendors in the marketplace will be forced to keep up in a Web analytics feature arms race or be absorbed and rolled into larger enterprise marketing solutions. But, we’re already seeing this with tools like ClickTracks as integrated solutions within Lyris’ entire marketing suite. And Unica has taken a similar approach by integrating NetInsight analytics with its other enterprise marketing products. The Web analytics industry is evolving, but that does not spell the demise of stand-alone enterprise analytics.

Market Impact
Despite my respect for Eric Peterson, I’m inclined to disagree with his take on the pending acquisition. I do not believe that this will be a “permanent game changer” for Web analytics. Disruptive, yes – but permanently altering no. [For the sake of brevity I’m purposefully ignoring the MS/Yahoo! option.] In the free tool scenario, there’s no historic precedent (with the exception of some general open source examples: e.g., apache, MYSQL, etc) that free tools will displace commercial vendor analytics solutions. If anything, free tools will continue to be utilized concurrently with commercial alternatives for trend verification and specialized uses. Yahoo’s Wexler even confirmed this with his statement about using IndexTools to gain greater perspective on Yahoo! products. There’s nothing to indicate that a Fortune 1000 enterprise would abandon their paid vendor analytics relationship for free tools on the marketplace. If Y! decides not to make the IndexTools solution available for free, then they will certainly make a run at the larger players in the market. But competition is good for all of us and it won’t be anything we haven’t seen before.

I do believe that the availability of free or “Freemium” tools places pressure on existing analytics companies to raise the bar on functionality, usability and actionability of their data. While the free tools will help to spread the ubiquity of analytics data, the ability to correlate, analyze and take action on it will continue to be a driving factor. Here, I agree with Eric that the GAAC (Google's consultant network) will serve to perform this analysis and provides a stellar prospect list for Yahoo! Analytics, but IndexTools already works with over 200 agencies globally to analyze data and take action on it. If anything, the increase of free tools will amplify the opportunity for the prosperous analytics consulting industry and provide plenty of work for all.

In the end, I believe that the impact of this acquisition on the analytics industry will play out as follows:

~ Greater awareness and utilization of web analytics worldwide
~ Higher expectations placed on enterprise players to innovate and deliver
~ Further expansion of ancillary marketing tools as core capabilities offered by existing enterprise analytics vendors

These are exciting times for the Web analytics industry. Lots of changes…lots of controversy…and lots to talk about. My sincere congratulations go out to Dennis and his team at IndexTools, as well as to the beneficiaries at Yahoo!. I believe that this acquisition is a testament to the capabilities of the IndexTools solution and I for one am extremely excited to see how this one plays out.

John Lovett | April 07, 2008, 03:13 PM
New CEO at WebTrends

Not much to report yet, except that WebTrends has a new man at the helm. Daniel Stickel, a former Google executive responsible for syndicated products, was announced as the visionary who will take WebTrends from Web analytics company to integrated enterprise marketing solution.

Here’s the company press release.

John Lovett | April 04, 2008, 10:22 AM
If I were holding the checkbook...

I’m no equity analyst, nor do I want to play one on TV…so I’ll speculate on what I think Coremetrics should do with their new $60M in series E funding.

Shout from the Rooftops
Coremetrics maintains widespread notoriety among analytics pros, yet there’s a big wide Web out there just entering the shallow end of the analytics pool. Coremetrics should invest in marketing programs to increase awareness and position themselves as the next step in Web analytics solutions.

Take on the Jolly Green Giant
While the green glow of Omniture will be tough to shadow, competition is good for everyone. Omniture has been the Web analytics powerhouse of 2007, but if anyone has the chops to make a run at them – Coremetrics is poised to do so. As a smaller and potentially nimbler organization, Coremetrics has a chance to shine on service, support and [retail] vertical expertise.

Shopping Spree
Well, not really a spree, since $60M ain’t what it used to be, but perhaps an acquisition. Adding multivariate testing capabilities or fortifying their search marketing solutions wouldn’t hurt. Coremetrics has been successful at creating tools for the marketer and should look to acquire technologies that make it increasingly easy to execute on strategic functions without technical intervention. The greatest opportunities may be around optimizing search and ad spending.

Continued Commitment to Development
Glimpses of the Coremetrics’ 2008 roadmap foreshadow significant improvements. Enabling the data to work for their clients by providing greater access and visualization is a priority, but embracing the reality of increased consumer control is a necessity. Social networks, UGC and the voice of the customer are creating a cacophony of insight. Someone needs to figure out how to make sense of it all and convert data into action.

John Lovett | April 01, 2008, 10:17 AM
Nice One Google

Anyone else do a double take as they logged into a Gmail account today? They spoofed Gmail “Custom Time” allowing users to change the time of sent emails to delude recipients of the fact that you’re actually late on e-mailings. Gmail uses an e-flux capacitor to make the whole thing work. The purported functionality even makes it appear that the recipient opened the email placing fault into their hands. Brilliant! My deliverables are no longer past due!

Beta User Testimonials…

"The entire concept of 'late' no longer exists for me. That's pretty cool. Thanks Gmail!" Miriam S., Delivery girl

"I used to be an honest person; but now I don't have to be. It's just so much easier this way. I've gained a lot of productivity by not having to think about doing the 'right' thing." Todd J., Investment Banker

Nice one Google, you had me for a second there...

John Lovett | March 25, 2008, 02:08 PM
Has Phorm Gone Too Far?

So what happens when your ISP realizes that the information it’s carrying from Web servers to end users is inherently valuable? UK based Phorm recently revealed products enabling ISPs to capitalize on their respective goldmines of consumer data by selling it to advertisers for behavioral targeting purposes. They succeeded in negotiating deals with three of Britain’s’ largest ISPs (BT, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media), which effectively provide broadband service to 70% of all British households. My colleague Nate Elliot aptly points out that Phorm protects consumer privacy by using this data anonymously and their service has provisions for end-users to opt out. Yet the damage has already been done as journalists, bloggers and satirists voice their concerns.

My previous posts indicate that I am a strong proponent of onsite tracking and the ability to create greater relevance and a stronger user experience for Web site visitors based on clickstream data. The key emphasis here is greater benefits for the end user. These benefits include:

saving time (by remembering information),
increasing relevance (by recognizing the context of the visit) and,
improving the site (by optimizing pages based on aggregated actions).

I believe that Phorm is overstepping it bounds by using infrastructure to capture everything that users do online and selling that information for a profit to anyone who cares to target them. In my mind, the frightening precedent-setting issue is that infrastructure companies will now have the ability to alter the experience for end users. In this way, sites that subscribe to the Phorm technology can use completely unrelated information about my [aggregated] online habits in attempts to sell me [my segment] products or services online. Or worse yet, find out things about me that no single site would ever know and draw conclusions about my personal life.

So what’s the solution? I’ll reiterate what I’ve stated in the past regarding personalization and privacy: consumers must be given a choice. Controls need to be in place to enable consumers to opt out of targeting tactics, stop unwanted solicitations and control the information that sites have about them. Consumer privacy is a delicate issue and we’re living in an age where dubious privacy practices abound. It will only take a single breach of online privacy to send the advocates, bloggers and satirists into a tirade. For now, I’d like to help educate the masses about the benefits and realities of targeting and empower consumers to make their own choices.

John Lovett | March 20, 2008, 03:44 PM
Behavioral Targeting Does Attract Attention

The New York Times published a second article today regarding pending legislation to regulate tracking of online behavior using analytics tools. The story centered on a bill submitted by a NY assemblyman, and suggested “there ought to be a law…that would make it a crime for certain Web companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent”. This sentiment runs parallel with the previous story (by the same reporter) that cited 9 customer advocacy groups petitioning for Do Not Track lists.

So, lawmakers are now playing catch-up to Internet practices that have been in place for years. The unfounded fear is that ‘you know too much about me and will entice me to spend money on your products’. C’mon. In essence, haven’t salesmen and marketers been attempting to do this for the last century? Size up your customer and sell them what you can. The Web allows us to interact with an environment that is infinitely measurable…And now you want to take that away? Privacy concerns considered, I think these legislatures have an uphill battle in front of them. Advertising has always been an intrusive process. Stop people from what they’re doing, get their attention and say something memorable. If tracking enables that in a more relevant manner, I say -- good for advertising. If you don’t like it, ignore the ads (and don't worry…they’re used to it).

John Lovett | March 10, 2008, 11:20 PM
From the Campfire to the Rave

I’ve been on the road for the last two weeks attending what could be considered the pinnacle of the Web analytics universe. Coremetrics kicked off in Fort Worth Texas and then most recently Omniture held its client summit in Salt Lake City. The Coremetrics client summit was a full cowboy affair, complete with faux campfires, classic cowboy western video clips and line dancing (for those inclined) at Billy Bob’s bar & grill. The following week, Omniture had an entirely different thematic approach, which felt more like a rave branded in Omniture green. Prior to the opening keynote, attendees were ushered into the massive ballroom with flashing lights, a stainless steel art deco stage and full blaring rave music. It was quite a contrast to Coremetrics event, yet there were some striking similarities between the two events. I feel extremely fortunate to have been invited to attend each one and am inclined to share my perspective on these dueling rivals in the evolving Web analytics marketplace.

Training & Education:
On the day preceding the summit, Omniture held educational sessions for newly acquired Visual Sciences customers by enlightening them on transitioning to SiteCatalyst and Discover. Participating clients that I talked to anticipated a laid back casual approach, but instead encountered a rigorous roll-up-your-sleeves intensive training session. Throughout the three days of the Omniture event, they had pros on hand to answer technical questions and aid in real-time implementation issues. They set up “Hot Labs”, for account managers to work with clients on any topic and by my observation they were well attended.

Coremetrics held its formal Coremetrics University training on the day following its summit and although I didn’t get to inquire about the results of the training sessions, numerous clients were looking forward to a comprehensive experience. Coremetrics also had pros on hand throughout the event to answer technical questions and tackle real-time problem solving. Every exec I spoke with challenged attendees to stump the experts on the floor and if my inquisitions were any indication, they were doing a solid job.

Keynotes & Presentations:
Coremetrics opened with a Wild West skit that depicted “Dusty” cowboys dependent on the digital world. A fitting analogy for the chasm that is the digital divide and a graceful segue to Joe Davis’ keynote on How the Web Was Won – or – at least continues to evolve. Laura Evans, from Resource Interactive, followed with her presentation on the Open Brand and John Squire delivered “Got Marketing?” solutions which included Coremetrics’ 2008 updates on Search, Intelligent Offer, LiveMail and Coremetrics Connect. Day two featured an in depth look at the product roadmap and a glimpse of the new toys within the interface. John Payne’s enthusiasm was unfettered as he demonstrated the new products and feature enhancements. Eric Peterson from Web Analytics Demystified followed by walking attendees through a captivating presentation on measuring visitor engagement, his delivery continues to evolve as Eric delves deeper into the metrics and process. Coremetrics closed with a short-and-sweet message delivered by Joe Davis and a highlight reel of images and video captured throughout the event.

Omniture delivered on their promise of a mix of entertainment and education. Josh James kicked things off by illustrating the new composition of Omniture after its 2007 acquisition rampage. CTO, Brett Error then walked attendees through the SiteCatalyst v14 enhancements and other features on the development front. Peter Kim of Forrester delivered a presentation on Marketing and Day one closed with Lance Armstrong’s emotional story of overcoming cancer, where he encouraged us to believe in a cause and take affirmative action. Day two began with Seth Godin’s highly entertaining presentation, first flattering the crowd by touting them as the smartest marketing minds in the universe, then challenging them to create something remarkable and break the constraints of mediocrity. Omniture closed with Brett’s summary recap, a look ahead and a lively interactive feedback session of how to improve on their solutions. He took copious notes and demonstrated Omnitures’ devotion to customer driven development.

Both companies ran concurrent tracks throughout their client summits making for tough decisions on where to focus. I found the content delivered by each vendor to be compelling, technical and highly educational. I’ll go so far as to say that the topics delivered and ensuing discussions were at a sophistication level beyond most other analytics events I’ve attended.

Breaking News & Product Releases:
Coremetrics came out of the gate with announcement of their new integration platform, Coremetrics Connect. While it’s largely a catch-up move to Genesis and even WebTrends’ Open Exchange, their documentation process and integration guidance is well-considered. John Squire delivered a message of acquisition, conversion and retention and rounded out the product enhancements (i.e., custom report templates, key segments, export builder) around these principles. Expect to see some substantial new offerings in the spring 2008 release enabling analysts to “interrogate the data”.

Omniture’s 2008 product mix equates to 50% Web analytics solutions (comprised of SiteCatalyst, Discover On-Demand & On-Premise and Genesis integrations), 25% is Search Center and the remaining 25% is the new Test & Target combination of Offermatica and Touch Clarity. The SiteCatalyst user interface went through a dramatic redesign from v13.5 with applause-worthy menu improvements, single sign-on, video measurement, intelligent help and Web services APIs. Search Center v3 also debuted with integration capabilities that enable centralized control over multiple keyword bidding and monitoring solutions, scaleability to manage 50 million keywords and automated optimization.

Entertainment:
While this category bears no reflection on the product offerings of each vendor, Omniture was over the top. Lance Armstrong was inspirational, but the rave party with neon green light sticks, fresh sushi and Grammy award winning Flight of the Conchords was truly entertaining. Bret and Jermaine act exactly as they do on the HBO series and showcased their genuine musical abilities. The armadillo racing in Fort Worth Texas never stood a chance. I’ll admit that Billy Bob’s was a place like none other, but line dancing and bull rides do not compare. My bias for skiing over golf favored Omniture who sponsored a day at Snowbird, while Coremetrics golf enthusiasts teed up in Texas. I opted to stay in Utah for an extra day which paid off with over six inches of fresh snow and an epic day of Utah powder.

Summary:
Both vendors succeeded in showing their clients a good time, educating them on the new features and demonstrating forward-looking vision. These companies are driving the Web analytics industry forward. I expect that 2008 will be a banner year for both Coremetrics and Omniture and their rivals in the marketplace have a high bar set before them.

John Lovett | February 26, 2008, 07:18 PM
Connecting with Coremetrics

Here in Fort Worth, Texas at Coremetrics’ “How the Web Was Won” client summit, the theme is all Western. The keynote featured some Cowboy fun along with classic Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford video clips. But yesterday, the company was all business, announcing the introduction of their new technology integration platform, called Coremetrics Connect. While some may view this as playing catch-up to Omniture’s Genesis program and WebTrends’ Open Exchange, data integration is not something to rush into.

The platform was built on four tenets of closed loop marketing, which include: Extensible data delivery, Core APIs, Flexible reporting and Integration Wizards. Perhaps the most novel concept of the integration partnerships are the clearly defined documentation processes, integration briefs, best practice examples and full disclosure on what the integrations entail. This level of detailed explanation will be available for all technologies included in Coremetrics Connect, making the qualification process stringent, with hopes that this will pay off for ease of integration for clients. There are currently 25 qualified participants in the program, and more on the way. The Integration wizards (available in the Spring 2008 release) will allow marketers to simply select certified technologies from a list within the user interface and walk through the set-up process.

Coremetrics is careful to point out that Connect is not just another partner program, but a process for marketers to acquire behavioral data from adjacent technology applications, analyze the data and make actionable decisions. However, the differentiators between Connect, Genesis and Open Exchange are subtle, and they are not likely to cause clients to jump ship for another web analytics vendor. Yet, there’s quite enough going on within the Web analytics market to cause anxiety among clients. Coremetrics just Cowboy’d up to the Optimization table with their own integrated Digital Marketing solution.

John Lovett | February 11, 2008, 07:56 PM
New Web Analytics Playah?

Web analytics may have a new kid on the block with the recent $3M in funding from WPP Group, that places NuConomy in the limelight. The company is a part of the Israeli Web Tour and has offices in Tel Aviv and San Francisco, although their product is still in beta. The start-up is attempting to tackle some challenging analytics issues such as new media measurement and behavioral correlation. The reported killer feature is a two-way API enabling site operators to make changes automatically based on data generated by the tool.

Stay tuned for more on NuConomy…

John Lovett | February 11, 2008, 10:20 AM
Web Content Lifecycle On Demand

Clickability is an On Demand Web Content Management (WCM) platform that announced today new services delivered via the SaaS model. Infrastructure, Innovation and Support delivered as a service. Hmmmm…maybe I missed something, but isn’t support always delivered as a service? Infrastructure as a service (i.e., hosting, security, storage) and innovation on demand (i.e., best practices, open API’s and benchmarking) are not new concepts, yet Clickability is the first to wrap these key components of site management into one complete package and deliver on demand. One of the company goals is to empower marketers to do more with their content management solutions, while minimizing involvement from IT – and this solution is a strong move toward accomplishing that objective.

The merits of SaaS, often viewed as a small-market solution, are working their way up-stream. JupiterResearch data from our recent report, Web Content Management: Maintaining Process amid Change, shows that 12 percent of the market is currently using WCM solutions delivered as SaaS. Clickability offers Express, Professional and Enterprise editions, and is demonstrating its "SaaS appeal" with big-brand sites like USA Today, Wall Street Journal, PGA.com, and Gray Television on their client roster. The competitive field of WCM on demand vendors is small with only CrownPeak, Clickability and Omniture Publish offering pure WCM as SaaS solutions. Other vendors (e.g., PaperThin, Hot Banana) currently offer hybrid solutions allowing customers to choose from hosted or licensed versions of their solutions.

In addition to forging ahead with its SaaS initiatives for productivity, Clickability is also tuned into the environment benefits of hosted solutions as well. The company produced a Green Manifesto, detailing ways to reduce an organizations’ carbon footprint by adopting SaaS. While some may argue the finer points of this manifesto, I applaud Clickability for its commitment to their SaaS platform and for promoting green initiatives within big business.

John Lovett | January 28, 2008, 12:05 PM
Accenture Buys Deeper Into the Marketing Services Game

Accenture announced last week the pending acquisition of Web analytics data quality company Maxamine, and piggybacked news of their acquisition of multivariate testing company Memetrics, which closed on December 31, 2007. Both companies will be rolled under Accenture’s Marketing Sciences group and pricing was hush-hush as no terms were disclosed.

The acquisitions will fortify Accenture’s foray into digital marketing services, which I expect to be a lucrative field in 2008. Web analytics and multivariate testing technologies often require detailed analysis and expertise beyond what is commonly found within small to mid-sized organizations, thus the need for outside services.

Web analytics veterans will recognize Maxamine as a long-time participant in eMetric events and data quality evangelist. Their solution will meld nicely into Accenture’s services group because it can identify problems with analytics implementations and help optimize investments in enterprise analytics tools. Similarly, the Memetics solution provides optimization capabilities through its testing solution. The deal places a testing tool in the hands of consultants, who can leverage it to take the burden of potentially challenging test creation and analysis off of marketers and instead provide them with answers. This development pushes the managed testing scale (created in my Testing and Optimization Differentiators report, November 2007) to new lengths, by creating a let-us-do-it-for-you approach. Perhaps making a run to keep pace with Optimost and OTTO Digital services.

2008 is off to a brisk start with acquisitions aplenty. If this keeps up (and we expect that it will), I will have something to write about weekly and may need to rename this blog Site Technology Acquisitions & Alliances: A Web Marketer’s Frankenstein.

John Lovett | January 22, 2008, 09:39 AM
ATG Committed to eCommerce Personalization

Ecommerce platform provider ATG announced today its intentions to acquire CleverSet, a Seattle based eCommerce personalization company, with some rather clever technology. The deal is expected to close in mid February for approximately $10M and will add to ATG’s already strong position on personalizing the online experience. The CleverSet technology is offered as Software as a Service and plans are to continue to sell the product as a stand-alone or as an integrated solution within the ATG commerce platform.

It’s no secret that ATG is bullish on personalization, which is currently delivered through its Adaptive Scenario Engine, available to every current customer as an inherent feature to the ATG platform. The core ATG personalization solution is designed to better understand the customer and build lifetime customer value. They accomplish this by capturing data from multiple sources to build a holistic customer view, which can be aggregated and used for affinity tactics. Additionally, the Scenario Engine uses customer profiles and segmentation to personalize attributes and continuously adapt to changing behavior and preferences.

CleverSet brings a statistical relationship model to the mix, designed to complement the Scenario Engine by improving average order values and increasing sales lift. The technology will access ATG’s Data Anywhere Architecture to incorporate both historical and real-time behavior, past purchase history, similar shoppers’ behavior and other merchandising considerations to drive relevant recommendations.

This confluence of technologies provides deep insight into the collective customers’ psyche, with the ability to highly personalize…if… Well, if that’s what a Web site operator sets out to do. Personalization has experienced a rough road in the past 10 years, with the promise of a customized Web and relevant experiences for all. Consumers flatly rejected the notion and sent early personalization pioneers back to the drawing board. Personalization often evokes privacy concerns and the “creepy” factor detracts consumers from revealing too much about themselves. However, to quote Bob Dylan, “the times they are a’ changing” and many consumers willingly post personal information about themselves and their experiences across the social pages and ecommerce sites with reckless abandon. Behavioral targeting has become commonplace and the relevance of the Web is a desired function for some, rather than a violation. Perhaps the continued consolidation of personalization and behavioral targeting technologies, acquired by lager organizations such as ATG, will take the negative connotations out of personalization. And this time around…personalization will have its day.

John Lovett | January 18, 2008, 10:40 AM
Wasting No Time

The url’s have been redirected and the names have been changed. It’s official. Omniture completed its acquisition of Visual Sciences yesterday in just under three months – record time by anyone’s watch.

Here are some notable changes:
• Omniture Discover OnPremise will utilize the Visual Sciences Platform 5 technology and page tags from VS can populate SiteCatalyst data, which will appear in the integrated interface. Omniture will maintain its legacy Omniture Discover (hosted) segmentation solution.

• Omniture’s Search Center now appears under the header of Site Search and Content, where they wasted no time in incorporating Visual Sciences’ Publish Web Content Management Solution.

• The popular HBX Analytics solution will be rebranded as Omniture SiteCatalyst HBX. Although HBX should be placed on an endangered species list, because the product will likely be phased out. Omniture states that HBX, “will continue to be supported until the key features have been integrated into Omniture SiteCatalyst”. HBX has had a long ride, from Hitbox to WebSideStory’s HBX, to Visual Sciences’ HBX and now Omniture. It looks like it’s finally time to retire the jersey and move on.

Visual Sciences customers are being well cared for as Omniture will launch a Customer Welcome Program on January 22 which will include training and information to ease the transition.

Several senior management executives from Visual Sciences were appointed to lead the Discover OnPremise, HBX Migration, and Omniture Site Search & Publish product lines. Also announced was the departure of Visual Sciences CEO, Jim MacIntyre, who will pursue other interests after assisting in the transition and integration period.

John Lovett | January 09, 2008, 12:15 PM
Microsoft Seeking FAST Entry to Enterprise Search

The Redmond-based software giant offered to buy FAST Search & Transfer at a 42 percent premium above their current share price, for a total of $1.2 billion. The move is a validation of FAST’s technology and will propel Microsoft’s foray into enterprise search. Initial integration efforts will likely start with the MOSS 2007 (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) group because the acquisition will fortify SharePoint’s fledgling search offering, by injecting FAST’s enterprise-class search capabilities, but don’t expect rapid results.

SharePoint’s inside the firewall content management and business collaboration capabilities will be greatly enhanced by FAST’s ability to search disparate databases to aid in information retrieval. These capabilities benefit a substantial portion of FAST’s current customer base, which is comprised of publishing companies such as Comtex News Network, MediaNews Group, NewsBank, Reed Business, and the Washington Post among others, where FAST has established its credibility for searching copious data sources. However, the long-term goldmine for Microsoft may be in the business intelligence capabilities inherent to the FAST solution, which could be incorporated into the SharePoint platform.

Additionally, Microsoft’s acquisition strategy may be an attempt to fend off Google’s growing reign in consumer search markets and entry into enterprise search. Although FAST’s business-to-consumer client base is proportionately smaller, they help companies such as BestBuy and AutoTrader to facilitate product search and discovery. The acquisition would expose FAST to a larger global market and potentially open the technology to new consumer-facing applications.

Yet, one potential downside is that FAST may be stifled by the 800 pound gorilla that is Microsoft and find that their development and small company mentality is well…not so fast anymore. The deal is expected to close sometime in the second quarter and integration could lag well behind that establishing a timeline that easily extends 12 to 18 months.

John Lovett | December 20, 2007, 11:05 PM
Should I be worried?

Google knows a lot about me. Let’s start with the copious daily searches for everything from analytics research to stocking stuffers. I use Googlemaps for driving directions to every new location that I visit. My personal blogs are created and maintained on Blogger. They’re tagged with Google Analytics. My iGoogle tab opens each time I launch a new browser with content specific to my interests. My inbox buzzes hourly with Google Alerts on companies that I track. I’ve watched dozens of videos on YouTube. Several years worth of personal emails were sent and received via Gmail to friends, family, colleagues, and every word is archived for easy retrieval.

Now that the FTC approved Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, will my digital world become a bullseye for targeted advertising?

John Lovett | December 19, 2007, 08:25 AM
WAW Boston

Last evening the Boston Web Analytics Wednesday (WAW) chapter held its monthly meeting. Eric Peterson was due to fly into town and dazzle the crowd, but was waylaid by the storm on Sunday. I was invited to speak in his stead, (Eric’s stunt double as I like to call it). I presented the findings from a report that Jupiter will publish on the use of technology to improve website usability.

The key takeaway was that too few organizations are utilizing the technologies they already possess to improve the usability of their web properties. The challenge of improving usability repeatedly emerges as a top three objective for website decision makers, yet little definitive action is taken to affect change. Web analytics is the technology used most frequently as a quantitative measure for usability and it also proved to be most effective. I encouraged the web analysts in the room to take it upon themselves to think about their web analytics data from a strategic perspective and identify ways that the data can impact all facets of their sites, including usability. I also believe that the role of the web analyst is changing from tactical to strategic and those who create a data-driven organization with demonstrable results, will emerge as leaders.

Props go out to Judah Phillips for his undying enthusiasm towards web analytics and his efforts to pioneer the Boston WAW chapter. I am always impressed at the caliber of people that attend these events. From the BU college students who are way ahead of the curve in analytics knowledge, to the seasoned professionals, the conversation is always stimulating. If you are in the business of web analytics, check out a WAW event near you.

John Lovett | December 14, 2007, 11:48 AM
The Extinction of the Hippo

Perhaps you’ve seen a Hippo wandering the halls of your organization? If you’re a web marketer with lofty aspirations, you may be thinking that its days are numbered. If not, you’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about. HiPPO is an acronym being bandied about in marketing circles that stands for the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. However, the tools in the website operators’ toolbox are threatening the HiPPO’s reign and foreshadow its possible extinction.

Measurement technologies have changed the game for marketers operating in the digital world. Web analytics empower us to follow the steps of web site visitors and determine exactly what they do, when they do it, and whether or not their actions result in our desired outcomes. We can measure these interactions and are even getting crafty about placing value on the level of interaction visitors have with our websites to target the desirable ones and segment out the less profitable. Add to this the ability to apply predictive analysis, based on user profiles and affinity tactics, to know what customers are likely to do – even before they do. Finally, we can validate our predictions and hypotheses using testing tools to allow visitors to define the web in a method that works best for them. These actions are possible in a data-driven organization that makes decisions based on information rather than intuition.

Yet, beware the HiPPO. In the absence of data, the HiPPO thrives and will govern web pages with intuition and instinct. Your task is delicate, without angering the HiPPO, you must illustrate that the data-driven approach will enable the entire organization to prosper. Start slowly by introducing data to support the cause. Eagerly accept the opinions of the HiPPO, yet contrast them with alternatives that can be tested with tools. Use the outcome of testing as a win-win scenario. If the HiPPO was right – they are the smartest beast in the jungle; if wrong – demonstrate that the alternative got you closer to your website goals. By using data to validate your findings, you may notice that the HiPPO, (while maybe not destined for extinction) is certainly more open to ideas.

John Lovett | November 30, 2007, 05:14 PM
Gilbane Conference: Beyond the Buzz...

This week was Web Content Management (WCM) week in Boston, with a kick-off on Monday at the CM Pros conference, followed by two days of the Gilbane Conference & technology showcase. The general tenor of the event made for great networking and included interesting keynotes, lively vendor discussion and industry expert sessions. All of which included a healthy dose of forward-looking statements.

The widespread impact of Web 2.0, from both an end-user and user-contributor perspective, was a recurring theme throughout the conference. I took it upon myself to dig beyond the 2.0 buzz to determine the practical influence that new technologies will have on the user’s experience and the way content is delivered. Here is what I came up with…

Alerting – certainly a familiar technology today, which will increasingly be used in new and innovative ways. Take for example Facebook’s Beacon. A failed attempt, but nonetheless a feature that uses events as triggers to automate notification. Retailers are adopting alerts as merchandising tactics and we can only expect to see more as consumers are looking for a push of relevant information.

Community – the dependence on social networks is strengthening daily as users spend more time using the tools and features within their social arenas. Communities are important as social networks, but will also begin to permeate the workforce as collaboration tools. With a distributed workforce becoming the norm and growing familiarity with social networking tools, it’s not long before employees are asking for Facebook-style tools for internal collaboration. Organizations will be forced to embrace these technologies and build solutions around them – or risk losing their talent to those who do.

Open APIs – Google maps is certainly the most utilized API, since geography helps us to attach relevance to everything we do. Services like Zillow have brought the mash-up to new levels of usability and “coolness”, with a high functionality after bite. With mash-ups as a hot topic in many discussions at the conference, we can expect to see more of them. Yet, “openness” is a concept that 2.0 functionality is built upon and will maintain a key role in the ongoing development of cutting edge technology.

Relevance – don’t give me everything, just give me what I need – and hurry up. I don’t know about you, but my world is full of too much unwanted information. I’m willing to provide some details about my personal preferences in order to place filters on the information that comes my way. Web Content Management systems are doing their part by enabling dynamic content powered by behavioral targeting, analytics and community influences. While governance remains a critical component to my privacy (thanks Amazon for not giving up our purchase histories), predictive analysis and relevance will severely impact the way that we interact with the web.

I’m currently in the process of completing a report on web content management technologies that provides a level-set on how website decision-makers are dealing with content management and delivery in an environment of innovation and change. Stay tuned…

John Lovett | November 16, 2007, 02:52 PM
WebTrends in the Spotlight…Again!

My inbox buzzed with news alerts on WebTrends at least a dozen times in the last two weeks, but yesterday’s event nearly slipped under the radar.

Tim Kopp, the marketing visionary that WebTrends snatched from Coca-Cola less than a year ago has decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. His departure follows the dismissal of several other key management executives, which begs the question…What’s going on at WebTrends?

My sources at WebTrends informed me that Tim would remain actively involved with the company until the end of the year and that “he’s really quite involved with customer relations on a day-to-day basis”. Despite the recent changes, the company reports that the staff is excited to move forward and that they’ve received great response from customers and prospects on recent initiatives. Expect to see several press releases within the next 30 days announcing new customer wins in media and financial services industries. Additionally, the company reports several key renewals within the retail industry leading up to this year’s online holiday shopping season. Existing tier-one customers such as Kimberly-Clark and Dow Chemical have also recently agreed to conduct new business with WebTrends indicating optimism in their ongoing capabilities.

The internal shake-up in recent weeks is unfortunate for WebTrends because the company was (and perhaps still is) gaining momentum with their ML2 product suite. Their Score product attempts to quantify the elusive and increasingly popular customer engagement metric. They recently announced a partnership with email services provider SilverPop, which leverages WebTrends’ Open Exchange network by automating delivery of targeted emails based on integrated unique user profiles. And they’ve enabled measurement of Microsoft Silverlight to capture analytics within streaming video and other rich Internet applications built with Silverlight.

Despite these promising developments, skeptics may still be wary. I expect that WebTrends won’t have much to say publicly about Tim’s departure and that it will get rolled under the board’s “pursuit of accelerated growth” umbrella.

John Lovett | November 01, 2007, 09:38 AM
Is WebTrends Next?

As I wrote in my previous post…this will get interesting...apparently sooner than later.

Several key executives from WebTrends were quietly relieved of duty yesterday, including Greg Drew (CEO) and Jason Palmer (VP Product Marketing). A visit to the management page of the WebTrends site this morning shows a new face – Bruce T. Coleman as Chief Executive Officer.

Coleman serves as CEO of El Salto Advisors, an interim executive firm, and held short-term executive posts at Vernier Networks (2004), Stamps.com (2000-2001), Rogue Wave Software (1999 – 2000) and Websense (1998 – 1999) foreshadowing a short stay with WebTrends and a likely sale of the company.

Many eyes will turn to Omniture as a prime suspect to buy WebTrends and dominate the analytics market because of their recent acquisition of Visual Sciences, but that deal is scheduled to complete sometime in mid 2008, so they may have their hands full at the moment. Certainly Coremetrics and Unica are keenly watching the consolidation of their peers, yet a new entrant to the marketplace, (i.e., Content Management Vendor), would create an interesting challenge for the analytics incumbents.

John Lovett | October 27, 2007, 12:27 PM
The Web Analytics World is Shrinking

The web analytics market just got a whole lot smaller with the news of Omniture’s intention to acquire Visual Sciences for $394 million. It was no secret that Visual Sciences was up for sale, yet speculators believed that a software goliath without a pre-existing analytics solution would enter the market with a quick pick-up of Visual Sciences. The convergence of these technologies will not happen overnight and integration may prove to be the lynchpin of this relationship.

Omniture’s acquisition strategy includes geographic expansion (Instadia), strategic technology additions (Touch Clarity and Offermatica) and domestic consolidation for financial leverage. This newest deal certainly strengthens the fulcrum for financial leverage and succeeds in enhancing the technology additions through the unique capabilities Visual Sciences brings to web analytics.

Considering Omniture’s expanding feature set of strategic technologies and its “Business Optimization” messaging, I question whether Omniture will become the marquee platform for digital marketers. Their analytics horsepower and growing internal capabilities notwithstanding, the burgeoning Genesis Network is seeding its alliances throughout the digital marketing technology landscape. As this evolving ecosystem takes shape, it will be interesting to witness conflicting forces of buy-in/rejection on the client side and dismissal/competition from vendors. Buckle up and stay tuned, because this will get interesting.

John Lovett | October 23, 2007, 02:54 PM
Rockies Make the First Error in World Series

I can’t resist a blog posting on the World Series since my beloved Red Sox made it to the big show once again. I’ve written about the correlation between baseball’s Sabermetrics and web analytics in the past, but yesterday’s news of the site crash and unavailable tickets caused me to think about proper site planning and the repercussions of poor performance on the customer experience.

During the first 90 minutes of online ticket sales, 8.5 million page requests caused the Rockies ticket system to fail. A spokesman for the Colorado Rockies blamed the crash on an “external malicious attack”. Although automated bots present a significant problem for the online ticket industry, poor load balancing and insufficient server capacity is more likely the true cause of yesterday’s failure. Most eager fans received DNS errors, but slow-loading pages and cookie blocking also contributed to the problem. Both the RedSox.com and the ColoradoRockies.com sites are hosted and maintained by MLB.com, which was expected to handle the increased load. Yet, the Rockies failed to understand that their traffic was redirected to evenue.net severs managed by their external ticket vendor, Paciolan who also manages ticket sales for the Padres and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Sites that offer sales exclusively through the online channel have justifiable cause for decreasing costs and maximizing efficiencies, yet the infrastructure must handle the task. Performance monitoring and load balancing services from companies like Keynote and Gomez alleviate many of these issues, but still don’t account for advanced preparation and a complete understanding of system operations and partner capabilities.

I won’t go so far as to say that the Rockies ticket error is a harbinger for things to come in this 2007 World Series, but it should serve as a wake up call for retailers or any site operators anticipating increased load on their pages this holiday season.

John Lovett | October 18, 2007, 09:14 AM
Acquisitions Continue in the Testing Market

Interwoven announced yesterday its intentions to acquire Optimost for $52 million in cash, marking the second acquisition in the burgeoning multivariate testing market in just 45 days.

The acquisition capitalizes on resounding synergies between the Interwoven’s content management solution and Optimost’s multivariate testing capabilities. As the web shifts to an increasingly dynamic content delivery model, it makes perfect sense to interject a solution that determines which content is most effective using a testing methodology. This capability aligns with Interwoven’s segmentation and analytics solution by providing a vehicle to deliver content to specific segments and optimize the message to achieve the greatest relevance.

The companies stated their intentions to provide Optimost’s managed testing solution, (delivered as Software as a Service) independently, or in conjunction with Interwoven’s content management offerings. This news will have minimal impact on existing Optimost customers, except that for those currently shopping for a CMS, who may now narrowed their short list of vendors. Interwoven customers will have access to a testing solution that will presumably have the tightest integration with their CMS and may entice non-adopters to begin testing their sites.

With just a handful of private multivariate testing vendors left, expect to see the remaining solutions usurped by larger companies seeking to interject science into their conversions and content delivery processes.