Thank you very much for your thoughtful commentary – which is (as expected) a much more eloquent conclusion of my “tagging” frustration. You say:

“..my overall reaction is one of disappointment that our industry is not evolving beyond proprietary purgatory”

Couldn’t agree more!

>> There is no sense in moving to a new approach to tagging, unless it is something open and interoperable.

Again – couldn’t agree more. This was a huge debate at X change in San Francisco earlier this month, where I for one at least, pitched the idea of not trying to go the route of a script wrapper – which is essentially yet another layer. I believe (right or wrong) that we won’t see an interoperable data collection methodology before the arrival of the “webOS”.

Cheers
d. :-)

I agree the deal is completely puzzling – great news of WebTrends, Coremetrics and the Omniture founders I’m sure.

I also agree that tags are a means to an end that have gotten out of control. Certainly the reason we started using tags back in the day was that cookie management in web-logs wasn’t good enough for deep marketing analysis. I’m not sure they’ve ever made life easier or solved the IT bottleneck.

I’m not so sure a decent alternative is around the corner, hence why we’ve created a solution (TagMan) to resolve the issue around tagging so that IT can been removed out of the loop but still retain a degree of control.

Paul

Great input. Thanks.

I actually believe we are very much on the same page, but that I (at least in thinking) have taken it one step further. When you envision a next step beyond HTML, which again, as you mention could indeed be Flex applications – I agree. When you mention that for every one of these there will be a dozen DIY applications (sites) that will use something else – I most certainly agree. There is no doubt that.

But if we forget the exaggerate overuse of the word platform nowadays (something which used to be reserved for Operating Systems only), I envision and am quite sure that we will see a more common web platform emerge (I chose to call this the WebOS, but it might come under a different name). This platform (which I also suggest, might as well be the browser) will provide an underlying set functions such as an event log. So any application on top of this, would be stupid not to tap into the event log as it will become in inherent part of the platform and any applications (sites) developed on it.

Think about this way. If you write a Windows application today, you could do that in any number of environments and any number of languages – but you would never develop a File System to store potential files, for that you would tap into the provided options from your platform (OS). I believe as in e.g. Windows, where event logging is integrated, we will see a set of more sophisticated base functions emerge.

So when you say: “Wouldn’t it be tagging, but just not quite as we know it?” I would say no!, I actually think this will disappear. Thus my distrust in the value of the OMTR/ADBE marriage.

Cheers
d. :-)

With so many literate people reading this blog, I am a little nervous of venturing an opinion on what I think will happen, but I will try anyway.

Certainly the idea of the web with an HTML codebase is set to decline further.

However I don’t think that a single format is due to replace this. Sure there will be closed apps using Flex, but for every install of one of these, there will be a number of low-budget WordPress and Joomla-type systems; DIY in the sense of building a page in Notepad, but obviously a more rounded end result…

Analytics should be able to link easily to these systems in the form of plug-ins. And in fact GA has plug-ins that connect seamlessly to WordPress and Joomla. These “bridges” would still need to be installed, even if a new web OS monoculture emerges.

Taking what you say here as a starting point, maybe then the new “bridges” in a more reliable, OS-based system of tracking would involve integrating these content management systems with client-side and server-side processes.

Wouldn’t it be tagging, but just not quite as we know it?

As for Adobe: The acquisition IS fraught with risk. As they love to teach in business school… 25% of acquisitions have a net positive effect. 25% are net neutral. And 50% are net negative. This one comes at enough of an angle which probably only diminishes the outlook.

But, generally with higher risk comes greater returns. What if we do pull it off?! My equity has been dispositioned for much greater returns in the past than this transaction provides. At this point, I’m all in to see if we can blow that away together with Adobe.

Thanks for your kind words. I look forward to connecting in person in the near future. Come to Adobe MAX! :)

Thank you very much for providing your viewpoint. Much appreciated!

And we are perhaps not that far apart in thinking, when debating tags (or other data collection methodology). Speaking of the deal itself, your options/warrants/RSU’s might tell your heart a different story than mine :-)

Cheers and all the best luck in integration (assuming this goes through, which I am most sure it does, unfortunately)

dennis

You are right. Tags are a TOTAL hack and completely uninteresting. They are just a means of collecting interaction and consumption data. But even at a higher level, collecting this data is also completely uninteresting.

What I’m trying to do is increase yields for advertisers, improve customer experiences, and improve publishers’ ability to monetize their content. And that is where the data stream in question finally gets interesting!

How I get it doesn’t matter that much. Tags are quite popular right now, but the data acquisition model is evolving. I’ve seen 10x growth in the last few years of both app-to-app data insertion (via my XML API) as well as bulk data uploads. I hope that in the future we’ll be able to tap into the “WebOS Event Log” as well. From a data collection perspective a decent analogy is to compare Omniture to syslog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syslog) — but for marketing.

So while I think that the data collection we do here is tactical… costly, painful, and completely uninteresting. What is important and interesting to me is that the data is collected centrally and value be extracted from it to not only provide decision support for business management, but also automatically take action on behalf of businesses and consumers. That is where the true value of Omniture lies.

So, my advice: DOWN WITH TAGS! Well, not really. Tags still work well, so please, use whatever works for you to collect data. Just please collect and own your own data and make sure you are maximizing the value of this strategic resource in your org.