IndexTools (Yahoo!) Web Analytics goes FREE!
Hi there, a bit of news for you who follow the Yahoo! IndexTools integration steps. But first, THANK YOU very much for all the positive feedback I received in blog comments, separate blog posts, emails, phone calls etc. I truly appreciate that.
Yahoo! currently intends to provide the IndexTools Web Analytics service FREE of charge to clients and partners who accept the standard Yahoo! agreement.
Today we will communicate that we’ll require our partners and clients to accept a new standard Yahoo! agreement and that Yahoo! (we) currently intends to provide the service FREE of charge to clients and partners who accept the Yahoo! Agreement. It is however important to note that our clients and partners must accept this agreement to continue using the service.
I think this is a fair tradeoff for an Enterprise class Web Analytics system?
Further to this, it should be noted that Yahoo! (I should probably teach myself to say – we – at some point) does not intend to add any new partnerships or direct clients in the short to midterm, while we prepare for the next rollout wave. This means that our current partners and clients will be in a unique position to either provide a service or use a service to which the rest of the market will not have ready or immediate access.
Very exciting isn’t it? .. :-)
For those of you who know me or heard me evangelize IndexTools as essentially 80% of the functionality of Omniture for a fraction of the cost – have to get used to the NEW NEW; 80% of the functionality of Omniture for FREE! ;-) he he…
Cheers
Dennis R. Mortensen


April 15th, 2008 at 6:05
Cool. It will be interesting to hear whether Rubix and Bid Management will be free as well.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:09
Yes. Much more about IndexTools Bid Management 2 and the upcoming IndexTools Rubix Beta.
Cheers and very cool indeed! :-)
Dennis
April 15th, 2008 at 6:26
Hey Dennis,
It was only a matter of time, but this is huge news.
I guess the analytics arms race is on!
What, no free copies for bloggers? Buzz, man :-)
Cheers,
-Alex
April 15th, 2008 at 6:41
Hi Alex,
Gentlemen, Start your engines! :-)
>>What, no free copies for bloggers? Buzz, man :-)
He he… As far as I remember (and that my outbox proves) I provided you guys over at Search Marketing Gurus with a free Enterprise Marketing Account. Ping our friend Brian Cosgrove from Avenue A Razorfish, as I can see I had it sent to him.. and if you are not successful in that, en just ping me again.
Cheers Alex.
Dennis
April 15th, 2008 at 7:23
“Further to this, it should be noted that Yahoo! (I should probably teach myself to say – we – at some point) does not intend to add any new partnerships or direct clients in the short to midterm, while we prepare for the next rollout wave.”
Does that mean that those of us who were planning on using IndexTools in the short term will now have to wait?
I am in the process of creating the analytics department in my company and IndexTools was one of the tools we were considering (currently on GA).
April 15th, 2008 at 8:32
Congrats Dennis and this is all very exciting – who’ve though there was still tool drama to be had in a post GA world ;-)
Look forward to getting stuck in
April 15th, 2008 at 10:05
Index tools is one of the more remarkable client side tools
Familiar with it since it debuted and have recommended it to dozens of Webmasters who have been quite please with the versatility
April 15th, 2008 at 10:19
Wow! I am beyond ecstatic. Bummed that I missed the window I was looking into IndexTools a few months ago. This by far is the most amazing news in WebAnalytics. I am so confident that Yahoo! will dominate – I cannot wait to start using this resource. Congratulations again and look forward to the public release.
Cheers,
Mike C.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:39
Hi there SEWEB
Thank you for the heads up and for the confidence over the years!
Cheers Dennis
April 15th, 2008 at 11:07
Hi Vicky,
Good to hear from you; and we are indeed setting up a stage show. I opt for being Prince Hamlet himself; Omniture can be Claudius then…
Hmm.. perhaps not! :-)
Dennis
April 15th, 2008 at 12:44
Hello
I am merchant with Yahoo Search marketing
How can I get indextools free?
Are they trying similar to google analytics
April 15th, 2008 at 13:18
Very Cool Dennis. I called this out (that IndexTools will be free) in my blog when I first heard about Yahoo deal.
Check it out at
http://webanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/04/web-analytics-industry-consolidation.html
- Anil
April 15th, 2008 at 13:28
Figured it would turn free. Has anyone implemented this on their website? Would love to know how it compares to GA, especially in terms of data ‘discovorability’.
Dennis – keep up the great work!
Rich Page Ramblings – Analtyics & Reviews
http://www.rich-page.com
April 15th, 2008 at 14:35
I’m using it. :)
April 15th, 2008 at 18:04
Isn’t it “80% of Omniture SiteCatalyst for free”?
There are a bunch of other products from Omniture, including SearchCenter, Discover, Test&Target and 1:1 Behavioral Targeting and others from recent acquistions to pick from to support a business (inc. all of Visual Sciences neé WebSideStory), and of course the latest revision of SiteCatalyst (April ’08) adds additional functionality in tracking video and rich media amongst many other industry defining improvements.
April 15th, 2008 at 22:59
I did find it interesting to see the blog response to the merger on Omnitures corp. site. In traditional PR fashion, it is nothing but praise for you and your products… letting an outside source do all the bad-mouthing… ohh well, business is business.
Dennis – just sent you an email, so check your inbox, nothing critical, but think it makes for interesting conversation…
Cheers,
Brent
April 16th, 2008 at 3:19
Hi Anil,
>>Very Cool Dennis. I called this out (that IndexTools will be free) in my blog when I first heard about Yahoo deal.
Perhaps you are a clairvoyant? :-) he he..
Hi Rich,
>>Has anyone implemented this on their website?
3000 IndexTools accounts; so yes :-)
AND Lars… he he
Hi Liam,
>>Isn’t it “80% of Omniture SiteCatalyst for free”?
Hmm. Somewhat. We include External Data Sources as a standard functionality (Genesis), We include our Data warehouse as a standard functionality (Data warehouse). Beside this we do have Bid Management 2 (Search Center), Rubix (Discover) – which of course is not debated yet.. So I think you are somewhat right. But then again.. :-)
>>and of course the latest revision of SiteCatalyst (April ’08) adds additional functionality in tracking video and rich media amongst many other industry defining improvements.
That’s pretty much standard in any tool – GA included. All that said; I think their test&target is pretty cool, visual site as well – so I am definitely not discounting them at all.
Hi Anonymous
>>How can I get indextools free?
This first step is only for existing IndexTools Clients and Partners. So you unfortunately have to wait for further information on the matter. Sorry mate.
>>Are they trying similar to google analytics
Much more about this later.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:51
Sorry Dennis, but I really don’t like your unsocial mentality.
You hired a General Manager for you new office in Germany about six months ago, and now you fired him?!?
Please don’t tell us that you wasn’t aware about Yahoo’s interest to suck in IndexTools at this time.
If you a had a minimum of social competence, you’d never hired that poor guy who is forced to get a new job now.
Honestly, this is not the way how to treat colleagues.
April 16th, 2008 at 7:33
Hi “Anonymous”, :-)
I think I am somewhat social intelligent and I try my very best to treat people fairly. I can honestly say (probably way beyond my NDA’s) – that when setting up our operations in Germany, we were talking to an English company where the Germany operation would have been a very positive and integral part of the way forward.
But our Country Manager in Germany is not just some random bloke, he is super smart and will have NO issues in finding a great Job again.
Regretfully
Dennis
April 17th, 2008 at 4:17
This is great news. I look forward to implementing it.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:21
Hi dennis,
I am an existing Indextools customer and one of the reasons I selected Indextools was the integration with SEM providers as yahoo and google.
Do you think Google will still allow to use its data in a yahoo
webanalytics package?
April 17th, 2008 at 13:29
Hi Eric,
As it stands today, there is NO Yahoo API or Microsoft API access from Google Analytics. Vice versa on Microsoft AdCenter Analytics. So I am as excited as you, in figuring out the response from G and MS on our existing API agreements and whether they will be cancelled – I am assuming we keep the Y! one of course ;-)
Cheers.
April 17th, 2008 at 13:47
Will HBX or Omniture be able to extract data from Index Tools?
April 17th, 2008 at 14:24
Hi There, :-)
Remember; we collect and store RAW un-aggregated data and any of that can be exported in various ways in various formats (Incl. the IndexTools Web Services API) – For then to be imported somewhere else. But that said, why would you move that into e.g. HBX. Would it not just be easier to collect it with HBX to begin with?
Cheers
dennis
April 18th, 2008 at 21:56
Where can I find the standard Yahoo agreement that applies? I’d like to have a look to know whether I can leave IndexTools on my list of Omniture replacement possibilities
April 19th, 2008 at 2:09
Hi There,
>>Where can I find the standard Yahoo agreement that applies? I’d like to have a look to know whether I can leave IndexTools on my list of Omniture replacement possibilities
The agreement is not yet published and will go out to IndexTools existing clients and partner over the next weeks. I will make sure to publish information here on the blog once it goes out.
Cheers
Dennis
April 19th, 2008 at 8:12
Will be watching this closely. Looking forward to seeing how it compares to GA.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:25
Man, we JUST got IndexTools about 3 weeks ago and LOVE it! Fortunately for us, we’re going to get the backstage pass while they work out the “Free” version. Their people are VERY cool and we haven’t once wanted Google back. However, not every company may feel the same way.
April 22nd, 2008 at 13:17
Hi Matt,
>>Their people are VERY cool and..
Thanks mate!! :-)
Cheers
Dennis (IndexTools)
May 25th, 2008 at 18:17
That sounds awesome! It is really great.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:34
NEVER USE NEDSTAT’S SITESTAT.
Absolute rubbish. Google analytics is far superior and free. This is an absolute con. BEWARE.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:36
NEDSTAT’s SITESTAT is total rubbish. Google Analytics is far superior and free. This is a total con. BEWARE
June 6th, 2008 at 12:28
Hi Why, :-)
See – I am not affiliated with either Nedstat or Google, but I think they are both very decent solutions. My Job is of course to advocate IndexTools a Yahoo! service, but it is essentially about finding the right tool for the right job..
Cheers
Dennis
June 8th, 2008 at 22:29
Great!
Thanks for this post…
I have a plan to start a home based business and was looking for information like this. It’s very
helpful.
Thank you once again…
June 13th, 2008 at 13:55
[...] overname van IndexTools afgelopen week eindelijk in de web analytics strijd gestort. Vandaag werd bekend dat ze het echt goed gaan aanpakken. Yahoo! heeft besloten om IndexTools gratis aan te gaan [...]
June 20th, 2008 at 3:00
[...] dla tak dobrego narzędzia analitycznego), a już dziś ogłasza, że zaoferuje ten produkt za darmo. Dotychczasowe ceny wersji enterprise zaczynały się od $250 miesięcznie i rosły wraz ze [...]
July 7th, 2008 at 18:37
[...] this morning Dennis R. Mortensen, COO of IndexTools wrote on his blog that Yahoo will indeed offer IndexTools for free.He also claims that IndexTools offers 80% of Omnitures functionality. So you get 80% of the [...]
July 18th, 2008 at 11:34
Hi Denis,
Hope all goes well!
I am about to do a tool switch with a client and would really like to wait for this if it it is going to get a wider release soon.
Any prospect or am I looking at 6 months or more for new clients?
Cheers,
Vicky
July 18th, 2008 at 12:13
Hi Vicky,
Good to hear from you. You CAN actually set up IndexTools accounts through one of the some 200 partners worldwide – if you want to try switching tool today.
Let me know if you need some help there!
Cheers :-)
Dennis
July 19th, 2008 at 16:55
[...] is much faster than for examples the web based application of IndexTools (Indextools was bought by Yahoo in April [...]
August 30th, 2008 at 5:21
Great news!! Will look forward to using it once it is out for public.
I am so far well satisfied with GA, but something I would really like to see above it. I am specially interested in getting Web Log data.
Would love to see if you provide area to add own feature (completely new). If this happen would like to build some applications for Yahoo Anlaytics based on my experience in Analytics for Non-Web Data.
I am doing some research on integration of web and non-web data, and for this cause I am exploring piwik (as GA does not provide data). Let me know if you have something in this line.
Bhupendra
August 31st, 2008 at 23:12
Hi Bhupendra
Thank you for commenting.
Pop by the Blog in a good months time and there will be more news about next steps my friend :-)
Cheers..
d.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:08
Hi Dennis,
Is there any limitation in the free Indextools?
I’m using GA now.
My site has a great number of pages(a online dictionary site) and in GA due to “fix-sized data base” issue only 50000 entries can be showed for each day, the others are all included in a entry named “other”, which really affect my analysis.
Does the coming free indextools has similar issues?
I do wanna migrate to it!
September 11th, 2008 at 16:20
Hey Clark,
I know exactly what you are talking about. And I can positively say that Yahoo! Web Analytics (IndexTools) do not have the same issues! :-)
Cheers
d.
October 9th, 2008 at 7:13
[...] Yahoo’s analytics service is a result of the company’s purchase of IndexTools earlier this year. Shortly after the purchase, Yahoo’s Dennis Mortensen announced the company’s plans to make Yahoo Web Analytics free. [...]
October 12th, 2008 at 3:13
[...] acquired IndexTools back in early April and promptly made it a free service. Its big advantage over Google Analytics is that the information is updated within a few minutes of [...]
October 12th, 2008 at 18:16
[...] – 4/15: Dennis Mortensen posted to his blog today that Yahoo! is making IndexTools free to all existing partners and client if they accept [...]
October 13th, 2008 at 20:18
[...] points to an older post by Dennis Mortensen over at Visual Revenue that explains the plan: Yahoo! currently intends to provide the IndexTools Web Analytics service [...]
November 1st, 2008 at 8:49
[...] Yahoo! im April 2008 hieß es der Dienst sei für Yahoo! Partner bald kostenlos (siehe auch Golem, Dennis Mortensen). Leider ist er bis heute nicht kostenlos in Deutschland verfügbar, auch nicht für Yahoo! [...]
January 18th, 2009 at 16:49
[...] adCenter Analytics van Microsoft komen aan de orde. Interessant om hierbij te vermelden is dat ook IndexTools gratis gaat worden (waarschijnlijk eind 2008). Google Analytics en Adcenter Analytics (alleen na aanmelding en [...]
January 31st, 2009 at 17:15
WHY is everyone here so happy about this tracking product? I thought when I signed up with Yahoo that my privacy would be protected. I can see from this page that it is not and in fact NEVER has been. So I guess all of you people posting here must work for the type of companies that spy on your users….. NICE…. real nice.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:54
hmm. I think you might have confused who does what here Pippin. I honestly believe that Y! is on the forefront of user privacy today.. that is of course subjective. :-)
go have a look at this post about Web Analytics Transparency, Notification, Choice and Control to Visitors:
http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2008/11/web-analytics-transparency.html
Cheers
Dennis
March 4th, 2009 at 6:08
Any news on when (estimated) people can sign up directly on http://web.analytics.yahoo.com/ ?
March 4th, 2009 at 9:01
Hey Hannes
I’ll do a post soon on how we plan to provide access to the tool.
Cheers
d.
March 28th, 2009 at 17:23
Which one is better to use? I’ve been using Google Analytics. Should I try Yahoo! Web analytics? I think I should give it a try.
March 29th, 2009 at 9:02
You are asking me?
As an IndexTools guy and now after the the acquisition yahoo guy, I suggest you give it a try. :-)
seriously though, I think it all depends on what your needs are; if you are already getting all the information you need from GA, I see no need to fiddle around with yet another solution.
cheers
d. :-)
March 30th, 2009 at 10:34
[...] postavená na produktu IndexTools, který Yahoo! koupilo v roce 2008 a krátce nato oznámilo záměr poskytnout tento nástroj zdarma. V 1. vlně došlo ke zpřístupnění pro zákazníky Yahoo! a pro zákazníky dosavadních [...]
May 9th, 2009 at 18:33
It will be nice to see this tool when it’s finally released…
June 1st, 2009 at 18:31
Hello!
I need a yahoo web analytics account, could you help me?
July 4th, 2009 at 6:58
Hopefully they are at least better then the one from google.. they kind of suck if u need more details… but sure, they are free to use ;)
August 4th, 2009 at 14:35
[...] year. Shortly after the purchase, Yahoo’s Dennis Mortensen announced the company’s plans to make Yahoo Web Analytics free.In its FAQ about the new analytics service, Yahoo suggests three reasons why its product is better [...]
December 30th, 2009 at 8:19
Hello
I can I sign up for Yahoo Analytics ?
I used to have indextools free account when indextools was a seperate company. I have forgotten my login details and there is no way to recover the details.
December 31st, 2009 at 13:40
Hi Ibn,
There’s multiple ways you can get an account, but in your situation, I suggest you go connect with one of the YWACN partners.
http://web.analytics.yahoo.com/ywacn.php
Cheers
d. :-)
March 12th, 2010 at 16:26
Yes, Yahoo tool is great, but there are not so many features if you compare it with Google Analytics. But still very good to use. Don’t be evil ;)