measurement – Page 14 – Andrew Careaga

Analytics anxiety over urchin.js

Web workers who use Google Analytics to measure and analyze visits to their websites may have gotten a bit of a scare last week when it was reported (first by Pingdom, then by ReadWriteWeb) that an older tracking module in Google Analytics (urchin.js) might stop working later this year. (Google switched to the ga.js tracking module in December 2007 and, according to Pingdom, stopped maintaining urchin.js.)

If the urchin.js code stopped working, thousands of the world’s top websites would be affected. Among them, some heavy hitters such as Blogger.com and Doubleclick.com (both owned by Google), IGN.com, Foxnews.com, Match.com, Wired.com, iStockphoto.com and PCWorld.com.

On Friday, Google Analytics’ Brett Crosby set the record straight, posting on the Google Analytics Blog an unequivocal “we have no immediate plans to decommission urchin.js” and adding, “If and when we do, we will make sure users get clear, advanced notification from us and time to switch.”

Even so, it isn’t a bad idea for users to make the switch from urchin.js to ga.js, as Crosby also suggested. Even though “there is no immediate need or requirement to do so,” he recommended users “[m]ake the switch to ga.js when it is convenient for you or when you are ready to start taking advantage of the improved functionality.”

In-house gets it done cheaper, faster

These days, just about everyone working in the PR, marketing or creative services field is looking for information to help show the value of their work — especially when talk turns to outsourcing and budget reductions. If you happen to be part of an in-house PR, marketing or creative services team, then you might want to make note of this little nugget I picked up from an American Marketing Association webinar from a few years ago:

In-house PR, marketing and creative services staff are more efficient than outside agencies, according to information presented during this webinar by Aquent.

As the chart below illustrates, in-house services can get the work done at 40 percent of the cost of a typical agency, and in one-third the time. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Of course, this is only one data point, from one source. But it’s a third party resource that may come in handy when talk turns to outsourcing work as a cost-cutting measure.

I’m not writing this to slam consultants. Consultants provide valuable services to our colleges and universities. But these days, we need to consider the value and expertise our in-house people bring to our marketing operations.