Before Google Analytics, most content publishers relied on effective-but-obscure third-party analytics tools for measuring web traffic. AWStats, still used by many, is one of the best tools for this purpose since it tracks hits server-side instead of through JavaScript (which some browsers actively strip, thus reducing the quality of information provided by Google Analytics).
Google Analytics came along, and (thanks to the assumption that Google is great at everything) singlehandedly convinced many publishers to rely on Google Analytics instead of tools available to most publishers on their web servers. Granted, Google Analytics was easier to access and read, but it still didn’t provide as much raw data as most web developers and content pushers needed.
Then came Microsoft’s own analytics tool, tied to its beta advertising program, titled “AdCenter Analytics.” If you take a look at the html source for this page and look at the bottom, you’ll see that we’ve got both Google Analytics and AdCenter Analytics running, which provides us with a unique insight into how they both work. Keeping it brief, Microsoft’s tools provided far more usable information and was generally easier to navigate than Google Analytics, and while I use both, I’m likely going to keep using AdCenter for as long as possible, which brings me to the subject of its closure.
Microsoft put out this email to all AdCenter Analytics testers, which you can catch after the jump.
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