Today Google is releasing a significant update to Google Analytics. I’m not sure if it is officially version 3.0, but the amount of new functionality is extraordinary. Not to mention some nice changes to the interface to clean things up.
This new release includes:
* Motion Charts (a data visualization tool)
* Advanced Segmentation
* Custom Reporting
* AdSense Integration
* A data API
* A new administrative interface
Not all of these features are public. The API and AdSense reports (I believe) are in private beta meaning your account must be authorized to use them. All other features are public! Woo Hoo!
These new features cover 90% of the requests we get from all users, both big and small. In my opinion this release is game changer, especially for the enterprise market.
For example, our ability to manage massive GA implementations (1,000 + sites) is now much easier with the new administrative interface. And the data API let’s companies integrate their click stream data with other data sources. Did I mention that Advanced Segmentation let’s you segment historical data?
I’ll slowly be rolling out some posts and to cover all new features as well as a few posts to discuss how this changes the way we work with GA.
A big congratulations to the Google Analytics team. The amount of new functionality is really amazing.
These changes look amazing… although I can’t see them in my account. Have they only pushed out to select customers?
I can’t see them either. What’s the deal?
Hey Everyone,
The new features, except the AdSense reports are an open beta. You’ll see the new features soon, it just takes some time for Google to roll them out.
Justin
Justin,
A year ago you wrote about automatic outbound link tracking. Is that feature still in beta? I was hoping this new release would include that feature. Will it ever be released?
With the advanced segmentation and API coming, it’s hard to justify paying for webanalytics tools like SiteCatalyst. Can’t wait to get my hands on these new features :-)
BF,
Or should I saw BFF! Ha! Sorry, I could not resist.
You make a great observation. There were a number of features announced last year at EMetrics, like event tracking and outbound link tracking, and we have not seen them yet. I’m not sure what the timeline is for those features.
Justin
Justin,
You rock! Thanks for putting together the video and the posts – great information!
I can’t wait until I see the changes in my account.
-Leslie
I manage a non-profit website. When I go to my GA Account, I am not seeing the new features. Any idea why not?
Thanks – Joel
GA team and Avinash did a great job. The new AS will get us so much more from the platform.
Thank you GA team!
These new features are a blast! I hope that Analytics 3.0 is coming across Europe very fast…
I wonder what happend to event tracking. anyone know when it will be accessible for the public?
Hey Petar,
Thanks for the note. Event tracking is still a beta feature. I don’t think Google released it yet as it will generate a ton of data. Plus the are still tweaking some of the JS code. Hopefully it will be out soon. It’s one year and counting!
Justin
Justin,
My client accounts have just been upgraded to the new GA 3.0 and im sad to say that ive fallen in love with the possibilities already, and it allows for historical data, haha no sleep this weekend.
Im still waiting for the motion charts, but thank you to everyone that contributed to the new release!
Hello Justin. I am just a regular person trying to exclude my own visits on GA. I read your 2006 Count Me Out post and can’t figure out what you meant by all that code or where I am to paste it – favorite editor? I have dyslexia so it was hard to assimilate. I believe I had excluded my own IP address but then started getting hits from a nearby city that I think might be my own still even though my IP hasn’t changed. It’s all very frustrating and the data of course is worthless at this point. Is there a way to go back and filter out my own visits? I just started using it October 7th. Can other people visit without being picked by GA? I have gotten some visits from Saudia Arabia and other concerning locations. Is there a way to find out where they are really coming from? Thanks for any help you can provide. If not, ok. Thanks. Chris
I agree with you Justin these new features are very much welcome and we must say thank you to Google for giving us such “potential”. Currently I am still overwhelmed and that is how I got to your site. Looking forward to learning from you how to better make use of all the tools.
Hey Chris,
First, there is no way to go back and reprocess the data. What you can do is create an advanced segment to exclude traffic from cities that are close to your.
As for excluding data from your computer, the concept is that you need to add the file that I created to your server. Then you need to visit that page and follow the instructions on that page.
Hope that helps,
Justin
The new features are great! Especially for reporting. Eagerly looking forward to it..
Good afternoon,
I have been searching everywhere for an answer to this Google Analytics question and can not find it. I am trying to figure out if there is a way to use session cookies instead of persistent cookies. Governement policy for public websites states we can not use persistent cookies and I know in previous versions of GA they only gave a persistent cookie option.
Do you know if this an option now and if so how you change from the default of persistent to session?
You help is greatly appreciated!
Hey Tim,
This is actually a pretty common question. You could use a session cookie, but you would need to create the code to wipe the GA cookies when the session ends. Trying to change the GA code to force the cookies to become sessions cookies would be very complicated.
So, yes, you could do it. But it would take a lot of custom work.
Thanks for the question,
Justin