Adobe Systems is set to splash out $1.8bn on web analytics firm Omniture, in a move which could help developers create more highly optimised web content.

Adobe announced yesterday that it will pay $21.50 per share in cash for Omniture, representing the firm’s second largest acquisition since paying $3.4bn for Macromedia in 2005.

Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive at Adobe, expressed that Omniture’s web measurement and optimisation capabilities will enable Adobe to increase the value it offers to customers.

Content creation tools could be offered with web optimisation capabilities built-in, for example, enabling e-commerce firms and publishers to improve return on investment and enhance the user experience.

 

If you too have the habit of opening Google analytics everyday in the morning and looking at the number of visitors you received yesterday on your website then you might have observed a little change. Logging into Google Analytics has underwent a minor change which now decreses the effort you had to put in signing into the site again and again. There is however a button (image shown above) which now welcomes you instead of Login columns. According to the Google Analytics blog:

You know how with Gmail, you can log in to your account and then navigate to another website - but you remain logged in to Gmail? Then when you return to gmail.com, your account opens instead of the log in screen. It’s convenient, right? Well, now, that’s how it works in Google Analytics, too.

Previously, if you were logged into Google Analytics, and then you navigated away from Google Analytics or closed the window, you had to re-log in whenever you returned to get to your Analytics account page - even if you were already logged into your Google Account. It created a lot of logging in.

This is just minor move at integrating the Google services more effectively and giving the consumers a better experience.

Alexa no longer counts traffic that a site gains from social media sites like Digg and Reddit. For people whose traffic Last two to three weeks have been good due to social media buzz, they have noticed that it had no relative change on alexa.

For 2-3 weeks, Alexa has not been reflecting digg or reddit spikes. This is widespread. Spikes only occur on those sites whose articles went viral on non-social media sites after the digg or reddit pop. Sites made exclusively around social media promotion have been stagnant and even falling on their rank. It seems that Alexa wants to be a tool used by advertisers. And advertisers know that social media traffic is worth lesser than search and repeat visitor traffic. Also we all know that Social media traffic does not convert.

While most people seem to respect Alexa’s rankings, no one really likes them or agrees that they’re anywhere near accurate. This uncertainty can affect things such as site valuation, funding, business development deals, advertising, and so on.  This move by alexa will place them better with users who require accuracy.

I don’t know whether it is some error or an act of some desperate geek completely pissed off with google analytics but the stumbleupon has tagged google analytics site as pornography. Put “google analytics” in the search bar and behold. You wont see this if you are merely searching for “analytics” as it is tagged as Search in that case.