In what is an unsurprising move following the aquisition of Urchin back in March 2005, Google has launched the free Google Analytics suite.
Offering unlimited page views to AdWords customers and a cap of 5 million page views monthly for everyone else, Google Analytics is supposedly aimed at helping online businesses gather the data / information they need to understand how users are interacting with their site and what they need to do to improve their site, marketing and product merchandising.
The cynics will question whether you really want Google to have complete visibility on what your customers are doing on your site (and how much money you may be making), but there is no doubt that this must send out shockwaves to web analytic vendors. Offering near enterprise level reporting at zero cost, website owners will surely flock to sign up.
We shall certainly be testing the application, so watch this space….