IndexTools is now Yahoo! Web Analytics
We finally made it! or we at least made a very decent first step towards something bigger. Today, we announce the final integration step of IndexTools into Yahoo! and the re-branding of the IndexTools product. From today on forward our new name is; surprise: Yahoo! Web Analytics. This is exactly 5 months after we closed the acquisition and I think that is a tremendous accomplishment – which actually includes me relocating to New York. :-)
The re-branding also includes the launch of a new website and changes to the analytics product itself. It also includes a few enhancements to the tool, beyond making it scalable and compliant with the Yahoo! stack. From a user perspective, the first most noticeable fact is that we are moving to a single sign-on provided by Yahoo! and your account will be tied into your overall Yahoo! account.
As part of this announcement, we are also opening up further access to the tool and are now actively supporting:
- Yahoo! Store
- Yahoo! Developers (Y!OS)
- Yahoo! Head Advertisers (Microsites)
And for these, this is not just random access as in handing out 15000 logins, but well thought through integration with the platforms themselves. If you e.g. are a Yahoo! store owner you can enable enterprise-class web analytics by simply ticking a box and we then automatically inflate the correct tracking script variables at runtime. You are of course allowed to turn this off and take control yourself if needed. If you are a developer you will probably not even notice that it is us, as we fully instrument on the fly and create reports through the YWA API. All very exciting stuff I will elaborate on in future posts.
As you can read, this is not a free-for-all-come-and-get-it launch, but a carefully planned controlled access launch, which will keep all of our functionality in place and even enhance it. There is no dumbing down of the tool in any of the engagements above - and we will be working hard to add to the list of customers who can get access. So expect the above list to grow rapidly over the course of 2008. Anywho; The official PR message is:
Yahoo! Web Analytics will be released in stages to various business units and eco-system partners!
yeah yeah. – but when can YOU get access? From me, not today, unless you are part of the groups above or one of the groups we are about to engage with in Q4. But stay tuned! If you befriend Yahoo (e.g. become an advertiser) I am most sure you will end up with this tool. There is also a very active partner network, but more about that later though.
For those of you, who are yet to see how the Yahoo! Web Analytics actually looks, find a couple of random screenshots below.
Questions? – write a comment, send me an email, give me a call or come by the Yahoo office in NY and I’ll buy you a Diet Coke to celebrate.
Cheers :-)
Dennis R. Mortensen
Appendix:
Yahoo! Web Analytics - Dashboard
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Yahoo! Web Analytics -Compared ad-hoc scenario
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Yahoo! Web Analytics - Sales Summary
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Yahoo! Web Analytics - Path Analysis
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Yahoo! Web Analytics - First time visitors vs. Returning
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Yahoo! Web Analytics - Dashboard Visualizations
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Yahoo! Web Analytics - Custom Report Wizard
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Yahoo! Web Analytics - Conversion Summary
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Yahoo! Web Analytics - Segmentation Wizard
October 8th, 2008 at 9:50
Congratulations Dennis!! Wonderful effort from your team, and fast! : )
-Avinash.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:50
[...] Read Dennis R. Mortensen’s announcement at: http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2008/10/indextools-is-now-yahoo-web-analytics.html [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 9:57
Thanks Avinash. We actually think 5 months is not that bad a feat :-)
Cheers… Sorry I couldn’t make it down to SMX yesterday. But you know; LAUNCH.
– But I will see you in Washington.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:24
Congrats.
Although we’ll likely not be able to use it in my enterprise, I was beyond amazed with the product when I was doing independent research while I worked for an agency. It was great when it wasn’t free, and now that it is, plus its enhancements, I envy anyone who gets to implement and work with it on a daily basis.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:00
[...] Web Analytics has started a staged roll out giving access to some Yahoo! Store owners, Yahoo! Developers and Yahoo! Head [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 11:38
[...] first told me that Yahoo! were buying IndexTools and rolling it out for free I was delighted. Now that it’s official I’d like to congratulate all the folks involved at IndexTools again for producing a damn fine [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 11:42
Hey Dennis,
Congrats! This was a long time coming and very exciting.
Cheers,
-Alex
October 8th, 2008 at 11:43
[...] It’s been eagerly awaited for several months now, and I admit, I knew something was about to be announced on Monday night when I spoke with Dennis Mortensen while at SMX East, here in New York. I wasn’t quite sure what was going to be announced, but I had my suspecions, and this was it. According to Dennis, in his VisualRevenue Blog - IndexTools is now Yahoo! Web Analytics. [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 11:47
Hey Bryan
Thanks for the heads up!
Cheers :-)
October 8th, 2008 at 11:56
Dennis,
Congratulation! I hope you can release this service in Brazil as soon as possible. :-)
Regards,
October 8th, 2008 at 11:57
Congrats, Dennis. But you may want to change that Google Maps link to a Yahoo! Maps link…. ;-)
Cheers,
Ian
October 8th, 2008 at 12:06
Hey Ian,
Aargh. Bugger. Yahoo!
Cheers
October 8th, 2008 at 12:32
Hey Dennis,
Congrats! This is a great service and I can’t wait for the mass introduction. Keep up the great work.
ciao,
stephen
October 8th, 2008 at 13:41
Hi Dennis,
congratulations to all of you for the job well done. As we announced today another collaboration with norwegian open source CMS vendor eZ, I can’t wait to see what you got for developers in the future. : )
Cheers,
/Pete
October 8th, 2008 at 14:23
This is really exciting! I’ve been waiting for Indextools and Yahoo to get up and running. If I can’t get into indextools because I’m a Yahoo Advertiser, it’s time to get a Yahoo Store :)
October 8th, 2008 at 14:29
Hey Dennis;
Good luck on the rollout. Proper tagging is half the battle to being able to use web analytics properly. Automatic tagging is a huge benefit to Yahoo! Store merchants…
Cheers,
Michael
October 8th, 2008 at 14:35
Hi Dennis,
This is absolutely wonderful news! With both Google and Yahoo! on board with analytics platforms I’ll be very interested to see the features that are sure to come.
Can’t wait to use the new tool.
Best,
Mike
October 8th, 2008 at 14:58
[...] R. Mortensen meldt vandaag op zijn blog dat IndexTools per direct Yahoo! Web Analytics gaat heten. Niet alleen de naam is anders, er is ook [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 15:52
Congratulations Dennis and Team!
Well executed, looking forward to integrate our 2 products!
-Falk.
October 8th, 2008 at 16:15
[...] much anticipated roll-out of Yahoo! Web Analytics (formerly IndexTools) has started and I am thrilled. As I have been involved in Yahoo! Store [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 16:51
[...] IndexTools is now Yahoo! Web Analytics [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 17:41
[...] Vía Visual Revenue [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 18:24
Well Done Dennis and IndexTools/Yahoo team. You gave a great breakfast presentation in london a few months ago. And we are eagerly waiting for the broader release.
Thank you to for your direct commenting style to keep us updated with who can get Yahoo Web Analytics.
Hope your servers stay happy as the release gets wider, it’s going to be big ;)
-Tristan
October 8th, 2008 at 18:55
Looking forward to trying out this service - would love an invite if they are available.
October 8th, 2008 at 21:31
[...] Dennis Mortensen, Director of Data Insights at Yahoo posted on his blog that IndexTools is now officially: “Yahoo Web [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 21:43
[...] Some Screen shots of Yahoo Web Analytics: (Credit: Visual Revenue) [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 22:07
Wow! Cool!
“If you befriend Yahoo (e.g. become an advertiser) I am most sure you will end up with this tool.”
Does this mean that those of us who are using Overture/YSM we be able to use this tool?
Can you give us some more info on this?
October 8th, 2008 at 22:48
[...] Mais detalhes e screenshots do serviço podem ser encontrados aqui. [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 0:42
[...] Más información en Visualrevenue [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 1:05
[...] For now there’s simply a waiting-list for you to sign-up for, on the new site, as it subscribes you to the site’s updates. Dennis Mortensen, Yahoo’s Director of Data Insights, states that the easiest way to get your hands on this before Q4 is to become an advertiser. [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 1:22
[...] Mehr Details auf dem Blog von Dennis. [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 1:52
Dennis,
I would love to use Y! Web Analytics.
This is really very good product( 80% of Omniture capabilites it’s cool)
But do you know minimal advertising spent to be connected to the Y! Web Analytics for now?
October 9th, 2008 at 5:02
Congratulations Dennis! And, nice move to NYC… i´ll be there in November, maybe we catch up!
cheers,
jens
October 9th, 2008 at 7:53
Hey Dennis,
Great to see this, not so sure on the controlled release of the product. The market is hungry for an alternative to Google, and surely the introduction of the tool across the masses will help drive advertising on the Yahoo Network as a result of the uptake..rather than the other way about.
Regardless, looking forward to the broader release. Take care.
Paul.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:42
Congrats,
Screenshots look awesome. Heading over know to add to a few blogs to test differences, likes and dislikes. Stellar job on the UI, now let’s just see how it performs.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:47
[...] VisualRevenue [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 9:24
[...] The hottest news in the world of Web Analytics this week arrived on Wednesday the 8th, when Dennis Mortensen, the director of data insights at Yahoo, officially announced the release of Yahoo Web Analytics. [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 11:08
Great news! And indeed a great accomplishment on a 5 month period!
Congrats to the entire team.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:16
A belated congratulations! Can’t wait to see how the software develops now.
Richard
October 9th, 2008 at 14:15
[...] Read all about it on Dennis R. Mortensen’s blog: http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2008/10/indextools-is-now-yahoo-web-analytics.html [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 14:28
Dennis
This is great news! Congratulations!
Anil
October 9th, 2008 at 16:08
[...] is officieel: CEO Dennis R. Mortensen heeft op zijn blog verklaard dat de naamsverandering van IndexTools naar Yahoo! Web Analytics van kracht is. [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 17:34
[...] can follow Dennis Mortensen, Director of Data Insights at Yahoo! and previous COO of IndexTools at VisualRevenue blog for more [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 0:09
[...] Dennis Mortensen was kind enough to give me some advance notice that Yahoo! had officially rebranded IndexTools and was making it available to a wider audience, I have been so swamped with client projects I [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 1:12
[...] which was recently bought by Yahoo!, has been re-branded and is now "Yahoo! Web Analytics." Meanwhile, Ask.com is still fervently working on debuting their new analytics tool [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 1:14
[...] Mortesen ha annunciato l’avvio definitivo del nuovo prodotto di web analytics di Yahoo, cinque mesi dopo [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 1:57
Yahoo! steigt mit Yahoo!-Web-Analytics-Tool in den Web-Analytics-Markt ein…
Nach dem der kalifornische Suchmaschinenkonzern Yahoo! das Analytics-Unternehmen Tensa Kft übernommen hat, welche besser als IndexTools bekannt ist, wurden nun neue Informationen zu dem kommenden Web-Analytics-Tool veröffentlicht.
Die Analy…
October 10th, 2008 at 2:05
Hi Dennis,
This is so exciting to hear. The recent trouble with Google Analytics really gave us a hard time. I am so excited to have the Yahoo! answer to this by the YWA launch. The suite really looks perfect for the ecommerce portals (most specifically for Yahoo! Customers) with so elegant and in depth reports.
I really wish this comes up in line with GA very soon and become a market leader.
Thanks for the info.
Jigar
October 10th, 2008 at 4:29
[...] giorni fà Dennis Mortesen ha annunciato l’avvio del nuovo web analytics di Yahoo destinato a fare concorrenza a Google Analytics ( anche [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 4:39
[...] the remainder of 2008 and into early 2009, as Dennis Mortenson, director of Data Insights at Yahoo explained in a recent blog post. “This is not just random access as in handing out 15000 logins, but well [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 6:14
[...] Insights Dennis Mortensen says the easiest way to get your hands on this before Q4 is to become an advertiser. You can read more about the changeover here. I’ve also embedded a five-minute overview of what [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 8:54
Hey Alex.
>Congrats! This was a long time coming and very exciting.
What!? :-) I think we where super quick in getting there. Hmmm. I got to get quicker to keep up with you.
Hey Ruy,
>Congratulation! I hope you can release this service in Brazil as soon as possible.
The release is not really dependant on geographic location, but more on Yahoo! property relationship. Such as what you can see from the launch above. If you have a store, no matter where you live, you can get access to it.
Hey Stephen, Petri
>Congrats! This is a great service and I can’t wait for the mass introduction. Keep up the great work.
Thanks Mates!
Hey David,
>If I can’t get into indextools because I’m a Yahoo Advertiser, it’s time to get a Yahoo Store :)
This is hilarious and on promptly forwarded this to the YWA marketing team and they were laughing their ass off. I a SO going to use this quote again!
Cheers
Dennis
October 10th, 2008 at 8:56
Hey Michael,
>Proper tagging is half the battle to being able to use web analytics properly
You are spot on. People must understand that the insight can never get better than the data you’ve collected. So the first task is indeed to make sure that you do the proper strategy for tagging and then do the proper deployment work in inflating the correct variables. ALL this have been taken away as we do that for you in runtime. Pretty neat if you ask me :-)
Cheers
Dennis
October 10th, 2008 at 12:03
[...] said that, Dennis R Mortensen, Yahoo!’s director of data insights, described it as “not a free-for-all-come-and-get-it launch but a carefully planned controlled access [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 15:21
Congrats also from me! Great accomplishment!
October 10th, 2008 at 17:54
Hey Sebastian (webanalyticsbook)
Good to hear from you.. and thanks! :-)
Dennis
October 11th, 2008 at 1:10
[...] 我认为其中的第一条实时数据非常有竞争力，的确，其他服务基本都是需要 24 – 48 小时更新数据，而 Yahoo 的 Web Analytics 只有几分钟。下面附了几张图，了解更多请点击这里，更多截图看这里。 [...]
October 12th, 2008 at 3:13
[...] According to a post on Yahoo’s blog the updated version of the service is already out to advertisers and third-party application developers, with Yahoo Small Business users to follow. If you try to sign-up on the new site, there’s simply a wait list where you can subscribe to updates. Yahoo’s Director of Data Insights Dennis Mortensen says the easiest way to get your hands on this before Q4 is to become an advertiser. [...]
October 12th, 2008 at 5:06
[...] en sinds deze week wordt het hele pakket ook officieel Yahoo! Web Analytics genoemd. Volgens Dennis Mortensen (COO van Indextools) is het pakket nu al direct geintegreerd in Yahoo! Store, Yahoo! Developers [...]
October 12th, 2008 at 10:17
Hey Dennis,
congrats - great job, well done. 5 month…I guess that’s 1-2 month faster than Google was after the Urchin takover ;-)
Hope to see you soon!
Cheers,
Timo
October 12th, 2008 at 16:00
Yahoo! Web Analytics～ヤフー！のアクセス解析ツール…
ウェブマスター向けのアクセス解析ツールとして、GoogleはGoogle Analyticsを、MicrosoftはGatineau（ガティノー）を提供しています。
３大メジャー検索エンジンの中で、唯一アクセス解析ツール…..
October 13th, 2008 at 3:06
[...] April this year Yahoo! announced their latest tool to catch up with Google Analytics, which is Yahoo! IndexTools. After a couple of months waiting for this to be out in the market, Yahoo! finally released their [...]
October 13th, 2008 at 5:05
[...] pouvez lire l’annonce officielle sur le blog de Dennis R. Mortensen dans laquelle il annonce également un certain nomre d’amélioration et d’intégration [...]
October 13th, 2008 at 17:46
Dennis,
The screenshots look great. I’ve been using GA for a couple years, and my biggest frustration is the inability to gather data on our videos that are embedded on other sites. Any chance that YWA will address this?
Brad
October 14th, 2008 at 7:58
[...] Natuurlijk kan ook Yahoo! niet uitblijven met een nieuwtje, al is het slechts een naamsverandering: IndexTools heet nu Yahoo! Web Analytics. Netters wist hun handen te leggen op een erg interessant onderzoek omtrent de “Invloed van [...]
October 14th, 2008 at 7:59
Hey brad,
Without knowing how you distribute you videos and which format and player they are delivered in and if you have access to actual instrumentation on the former - it becomes difficult to say we are better or worse.
However; the way you would typically do this, is through the event model in Yahoo Web Analytics, BUT Google Analytics actually have a splendid event model as well, and I don’t necessarily think we are better. So unfortunately no native Video tracking yet (this is likely to come, if Video’s are distributed through a Y! platform though)
I came by this link the other day on how they instrument a chromeless youtube player. It might be good inspiration for you.
youtube-chromeless-player-with-google-analytics-event-tracking
Cheers
Dennis
October 14th, 2008 at 13:39
[...] ein paar Screens von VisualRevenue Yahoo! Web Analytics - [...]
October 16th, 2008 at 14:20
Hey Dennis,
Congrats, great job. Good luck with the next phase: beating G.A. ;-)
Alexander
October 17th, 2008 at 12:27
Hi Dennis,
I represent a Yahoo! Store owner and wanted to know if all Yahoo! Stores have this integrated and will it track ecommerce transactions without additional programming? Is it just as easy as activating it within your backend? I sure hope so. If you could point me to or outline how to integrate Yahoo! Stores and get ecommerce tracking enables I feel like it would be a wildly popular post for the community.
Thanks!
October 17th, 2008 at 12:56
Hey Miguel
That is a yes, yes and yes. It is truly as simply as clicking a button and it is being enabled for stores throughout this month and when enabled you will see it in your interface.
BUT I think you are right, perhaps a post to illustrate would help. Great idea. I will go have it setup on my test shop and take some screen shots.
Cheers :-)
Dennis
October 20th, 2008 at 8:51
Hi Dennis
I have just been introduced to you and your work through Vicky B who is based here in Scotland. Vicky and I are currently working together on one or two projects after I was told about her on a trip to New York I did earlier this year. I for one are looking forward to the time when I can start to work with your tools alongside Vicky. And, I continue with my quest in the UK in ‘educating’ the business owners who have 250 employees or less the importance of measuring their website activities and online campaigns, as so many are ignorant of all this. Dennis I wish you continued success, I just know you are well respected here and deserve this success.
Best Regards
Brian
October 20th, 2008 at 9:33
Hey Brian,
Thank you very much for the heads up and DO let me know if you are in New York, as a tour of Y! would be in place :-)
AND I will actually see Vicky in Washington for Emetrics tomorrow.
Cheers
d.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:53
[...] much anticipated roll-out of Yahoo! Web Analytics (formerly IndexTools) has started and I am thrilled. As I have been involved in Yahoo! Store [...]
October 22nd, 2008 at 16:07
Hi,
Exciting news..probably not the last one from Yahoo. It would be interesting to see how it competes with Google analytics.
keep them coming.
Thanks
Krishna
October 27th, 2008 at 10:59
[...] http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2008/10/indextools-is-now-yahoo-web-analytics.html [...]
October 27th, 2008 at 17:38
Dennis,
Congrats on the development of the web analytics platform.
Our company has a Yahoo store and we are looking forward in using the Yahoo Web Analytics to make the nescessary changes and drive more trafic to our store.
Again congratulations and enjoy New York.
Alex
October 28th, 2008 at 7:56
Hey Alex,
Thanks. AND DO let me know of insights, improvements, up-sell…. essentially MONEY that you make from it. I am keen to know.
Cheers :-)
dennis
November 1st, 2008 at 8:50
[...] Partner oder den Rest der Online Community. Das kann man nun in einem aktuellen Eintrag im Blog von Dennis Mortensen lesen. Er wird bisher nur in Kombination mit Yahoo! Store, Yahoo! Developers (Y!OS) und Yahoo! Head [...]
November 11th, 2008 at 14:51
[...] said that, Dennis R Mortensen, Yahoo!’s director of data insights, described it as “not a free-for-all-come-and-get-it launch but a carefully planned controlled access [...]