Google Partners with Analytics Firm
A while ago we mentioned Yahoo! was partnering with a high end analytics firm. It looks as though Google is doing the same:
Google said today that it would work with interactive agency and Web analytics firm ZAAZ, Seattle, to serve enterprise customers using Google Analytics. ZAAZ will provide services beyond what Google Analytics otherwise offers, for a fee.
"We have a very high interest and demand from the high end of the market," said Brett Crosby, product marketing manager of Google Analytics. "We won't improve the Web if they don't use the data," he said. "They [ZAAZ] focus on using Web analytics data for making improvements to your site and your online marketing."
It's all about improving the $$$, oops I mean web, isn't it?
Google has long been noted for looting clients from SEM companies, so this may be a fundamental shift in their operating procedures.
I do find it curious that Google would outsource any marketing process dealing with data. Anyone know why? Maybe to learn their systems and algorithmically duplicate them?
via MarketingVox
Seattle vs worldwide
I'm a bit puzzled that they chose a Seattle based firm for this... The Urc...uhm Analytics service is not exactly limited to Seattle. I don't know the Zaaz firm, but I can't imagine that one specific local US company would have been chosen to serve the whole world, so either this is hot air or it's bigger than that.
This is not all that fundamentally different from looting clients from SEM companies. There's a whole industry doing web research! I'm pretty sure that some very high level analytics people around the world are thinking very hard right now, as Google has been in the very centre of the radar since the Urchin news broke. I for one will have people asking me hard questions now - several thousand miles from Seattle.
As for "why?" that's obvious. Anything that can improve the conversion of Google ads is worth investing in. And you can't really leverage mass computing when it comes to interpretation of results and advice. Here, one human brain is better than a whole datacenter.
I guess they have had a
I guess they have had a number of partners for a while. I am just wondering why Google came out and specifically gave quotes for just one of them? Or if I missed some other news?
In my backyard, even
Thanks, great link :)
I see they've got a firm around here as well... Plot thickens...
It's because of the Seahawks
It's because of the Seahawks - everyone's gonna be choosing Seattle for everything thanks to our tough boys in blue :)
ZAAZ is well known
From my perspective in the web analytics industry, Google needs a legitimate partner in web analytics to provide them with credibility as an enterprise solution. I think that Google is worried that they will become a suped up version of statcounter, and they want to fight that notion by tying themselves to a partner that can get them in front of a major corporation as an analytics solution.
When GA launched, every Urchin integrator out there became a Google Analytics solution provider or whatever. So there are plenty of consultants to do the work.
The fact still remains, for some companies, a free web analytics solution that ties in ROI analysis from all major search engines and is provided by a company that gets most of its income from AdWords is a little too good to be true.