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Yahoo! Web Analytics 9.5 Launched

- by Dennis R. Mortensen. Tuesday, April 28, 2009 email  print   share

ywa-95-logoI am extremely happy to announce the new edition of Yahoo! Web Analytics (#YWA) which is rolling out to clients as we speak (YSM post) – an upgrade process which should be finished by end of May for everybody, you know, if we are on schedule and all. Beyond all the work one would expect in regards to general backend and scalability issues, we also had the opportunity to implement some exciting NEW features, such as:

  • New Demographic Dimensions
  • New Psychographic Dimensions
  • New Charting Capabilities
  • New Path Analysis
  • New Negative-Segmentation opportunities
  • New version 5 tracking code (I describe the upgrade in my Yahoo! Web Analytics book)
  • ..and 30 other smaller updates like e.g. native PDF export, use up to 50 actions (goals), introduction of 38 custom fields – and purplefication of the tool, well, you probably don’t care too much about the latter. :-)

The really exciting fact is that, the Demographics Data is not just presented in pretty reports, but much more importantly, as information that you use to filter other reports with. (Note: You might remember this type of sampled data from Microsoft’s adCenter Analytics – link to Ian’s launch post)

The dimensions are Age and Gender, which have the following properties:

  • Age (0-17,  18-24,   25-34,  35-54  and  55+)
  • Gender (Female,  Male)

ywa-95-demo-age-gender

The Psychographic Dimensions, which is called Interest Groups within Yahoo! Web Analytics, hold similar characteristics as Demographics, in the sense that you can filter and segment on this data.

The Interests are categorized as follows:

  • Automotive
  • Consumer Packaged Goods
  • Entertainment
  • Finance
  • Health Pharma
  • Life Stages
  • Miscellaneous
  • Politics
  • Retail
  • Small Business and B2B
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Telecommunications
  • Travel

ywa-95-interest-1

Please note that the data in reports, based on these two new exciting dimensions, are based on Yahoo! Visitor Interest data and may not be available for all your website visitors. YWA generate the output based on a sample of your visitors with their behavioral data, and YWA will only display the numbers meeting a certain confidence level.

This confidence level reflects how confident YWA are that the sample accurately reflects the makeup of your site visitors. You can actually reduce this confidence level to see more data, where you of course have to understand that by lowering the confidence level you are viewing numbers that one should be less confident are accurate for your actual site.

We also upgraded, as you can see from the screenshots below, the actual charting and visualization area of each individual report. This included opportunity to change the default visualization for the data, the opportunity to apply other data dimensions (such as coloring a bar chart based on a metric), visualize multiple metrics at the same time, visualize the true long tail using e.g. 500 data points, Introducing Bubble Charts, introducing the opportunity to use both trend charts and bar charts at the same time, having report filters and sorting reflected in the actual visualization etc.

ywa-95-visualization-compar

Well, enough talk!

One note before you go down and have a look at the screenshots; with this release YWA is opening up for managed Yahoo Search Marketing Accounts, so go CALL your account manager to get access – Don’t mind the data below, the screenshots was done in a staging environment and this post is not about the insights you can get with the new features, I’ll get to that in a later posts. I just want you to go have a look at some of the new features and preferable get excited as a marketer.

Imagine YWA being able to tell you, as a travel sector marketer, that those successful individuals who bought the trip to London in June where primarily interested in Politics, Female and between 35-54 years old. Sexy eh!?

Cheers :-)
@dennismortensen

Link to last post, when we rebranded, which includes pictures of the more general feature-set: Indextools is now Yahoo! Web Analytics

Appendix  -  (Yahoo! Web Analytics 9.5 Screenshots)

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52 Comments:

  1. Jon Myers Says:

    Congratulations on the Launch Mate,

    The system is looking great and the new functions are looking pretty powerful. Look forward to seeing how it performs on some of my accounts.

  2. Juan Damia Says:

    Congratulations Dennis, I’m very exited about all the new features. Good things!!! Juan

  3. Jacob Kildebogaard Says:

    Looks reaaaaaally nice. Where do you get the demographic from? I could fear that countries where Yahoo! only have a small marketshare, will have strange data on this part?

    But i really look forward to get my own fingers into this product. I guess Omniture is having stress right now ;-)

    @webanalytiker

  4. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey John,

    Prepare to be WOW’ed :-)
    - and this is especially interesting for a search expert like you, as one can combine this Demographic reporting with targeting actions in either YSM or AdWords. (I’ll actually plan to write a post on this later, as I find this super powerful)

    Cheers
    d.

  5. Dan Auns Says:

    Well done Dennis/Yahoo – I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and revel in the purple …. I mean the Data!

  6. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey Jacob,

    >>Where do you get the demographic from?
    The Demographic data is derived from sample data (a HUGE sample though, as it is from the entire Yahoo! network)

    >>I could fear that countries where Yahoo! only have a small marketshare, will have strange data on this part?
    NO. If you go have a look at the Screenshots, you will see that we added a “confidence level” – so your worst case scenario is that we DON’T show any data and you can then chose to accept that fact (that we don’t have enough data) or lower the confidence level. Does this make sense ?

    >>I guess Omniture is having stress right now ;-)
    I used to say 80% of Omniture for FREE, perhaps I should change that to Omniture + additional 10% for FREE. BUT I promised Yahoo! legal not to say stuff like that anymore. So the before is just a reference to the past :-)

    Cheers
    d.

  7. Yahoo! Web Analytics launched its 9.5 version…sweet!!! : ANALYTICS 2.0 Says:

    [...] Take a look to some screenshots or get more information visiting Dennis blog [...]

  8. Avinash Kaushik Says:

    Hurray! Congratulations to you and the team Dennis!!

    I can’t wait do dig into all the changes and play with them (yes this means my IndexTools is still “boring” blue, waiting the sexy purple version : ).

    -Avinash.

  9. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey Dan,

    >>I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and revel in the purple …. I mean the Data!
    LOL!

    d.

  10. David Says:

    omg i want one, Dennis mate this stuff looks amazing!

  11. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey Avinash,

    Thanks a lot. AND as you did indeed write the foreword for my Book, I believe that entitles you to a quicker upgrade.. let me ping engineering.

    cheers
    d. :-)

  12. Elena Enriquez Says:

    Hi Dennis!

    Fantastic! I was waiting to see this post in your blog. It looks great ;)
    I want to use it soon.

    Felicidades! Congratulations!

    - Elena Enriquez -

  13. Chris Grant Says:

    Congratulations! Can’t wait to play with it. I’m excited to finally have access!

    I still don’t understand the origin of the demographic information. “From the entire Yahoo! network” isn’t explaining it to me. Sorry to be dense — where exactly are the visitors originally entering their demog info?

  14. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey David,

    >>omg i want one, Dennis mate this stuff looks amazing!
    Looks!? ;-) it IS amazing.

    thanks mate

    cheers
    d.

  15. John Marshall Says:

    I am weeping with joy. The 3D effects have been toned down. They’re still present (BAD BOY!!) but it’s a big improvement in usability

  16. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey John,

    >>The 3D effects have been toned down. They’re still present (BAD BOY!!)
    Never surrender! – so a slow but steady march towards a world view of Stephen Few and perhaps even Edward Tufte (or John Marshall actually) :-)

    cheers
    d.

  17. Eric Hamilton Says:

    This is excellent…
    I’m really excited about the demographic and pschographic reports…

  18. WebMetricsGuru » Yahoo! Analytics 9.5 Launched and …. The Street! Says:

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  19. Søren Sprogø Says:

    Nice feature set, congrats on the massive work!

    Let me rephrase what Jacob asked a little: If Yahoo has close to NO marketshare in a country, then you can’t really show any data even if the confidence level is set really, REALLY low?

    And I’m of course thinking of Denmark here, where Google has a 96% market share and Yahoo’s is barely measurable:
    http://www.afdeling18.dk/blog/2009/4/7/soegemaskineandele-i-danmark.aspx

  20. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey Soren,

    >>Nice feature set, congrats on the massive work!

    Thanks :-)

    >>Let me rephrase what Jacob asked a little: If Yahoo has close to NO marketshare in a country, then you can’t really show any data even if the confidence level is set really, REALLY low?

    Let me rephrase as well. If we have NO data (or decent sample), then we can show NO information (I agree on that). But it is important that you don’t confuse Search Share (which in Denmark is indeed low to non-existent) with our ability to collect Data. They are related but NOT the same.

    I am excited to see how this works in smaller territories as well. I’ll keep you posted, if you do the same :-)

    Cheers
    d.

  21. Jiri Brazda Says:

    Hey Dennis

    This is the ultimate PURPLE COW and I wanna milk it now! :-) And as one of your biggest fans I couldn’t help but set up a Facebook group

    Yahoo! Web Analytics for free and for everyone!
    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=92462054858

    On a different note though, we’ve all noticed GA API recent public release which is a powerful feature. With 9.5 YWA strikes back easily but I haven’t noticed pretty much anything about YWA’s API so I’d like to ask about that and where does it stand compared to GA’s API.

    Cheers, Jiri

  22. Bill Schmarzo Says:

    Sweet!! It’s not only nice to see this very impressive upgrade in compelling functionality, but equally important to get this wonderful tool into the hands of Yahoo’s user community. Congrats!!

  23. Yahoo Web Analytics vrací úder: sociodemografická a behaviorální data v reportech návštěvnosti! | Web Analytics Wednesday (CZ) Says:

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  24. Damien Donnelly Says:

    Looks absolutely amazing – paid “enterprise” analytics should take a look at their pricing models.

  25. links for 2009-04-28 « The Adventures of Geekgirl Says:

    [...] VisualRevenue | Yahoo! Web Analytics 9.5 Launched (tags: webanalytics yahoo) [...]

  26. Tor Fitje Says:

    Finally it`s happening. I have been waiting for this a long time Dennis. This looks promising indeed.

    Tor

  27. Keemo Says:

    I can’t wait till YWA is available to everyone! This is exciting, Google is finally getting a fair competitor! I have a feeling though that I’ll be getting your book before the actual tool :)

  28. DJ Says:

    Dennis – we are really very excited about this over here in the UK.
    I see you guys stealing a march on the competition here as things are dominated either by GA or the big guns (Omniture, Coremetrics etc) We think YWA is just as good for what we need, and well, you don’t get better than free right?!

    Well done, and keep us in the loop as things progress
    @dcjarvis

  29. Simon Rigglesworth Says:

    Fantastic stuff Dennis, really looking forward to getting to have a play with the new reports. Extra actions and some self-definable custom fields are going to really come in useful.

  30. Upgrade für Yahoo Web Analytics | Web Analytics mit Ideal Observer Says:

    [...] Y! Properties zu Interessenkategorien. Die Reports sind über Segmentierungen verfügbar und sollen bei einem demographischen Targeting für Yahoo Search Marketing-Kampagnen helfen. Yahoo! Web Analytics wird demnächst auch wieder im Einkaufsführer Web Analytics gelistet werden. Nachtrag: Zur neuen Version siehe auch: searchcowboys.com: Yahoo Web Analytics 9.5: “Prepare to be WOW’ed Dennis Mortensens Blog: Yahoo! Web Analytics 9.5 Launched [...]

  31. Justin Cutroni Says:

    Congratulations to you Dennis and the entire team. I have really enjoyed using YWA. The “old” version has a ton of reports that I love. Can’t wait to get my hands on some of the new features.

    Again, great job!

  32. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey Jiri,
    Our OWN Facebook group. COOL!
    Let me know if you need anything.

    Hey Bill,
    Thanks. We try out best. YOU know how hard that can be sometimes. :-)

    Hey Tor,
    >>Finally it`s happening. I have been waiting for this a long time Dennis.
    I know. I Know. But it’s here now. all you have to do a wait for the upgrade to the NEW data center and everybody is happy. He he

    Hey Keemo
    >>I have a feeling though that I’ll be getting your book before the actual tool :)
    I race to the end my friend

    Hej DJ,
    >>Well done, and keep us in the loop as things progress
    Of course!

    Hey Justin,
    >>”..ton of reports that I love..”
    Insights Justin. Insights! ;-)

    Cheers
    d.

  33. Yahoo! Web Analytics med ny udgave | Webanalyse blog | Webanalytiker.dk Says:

    [...] 9.5. Det er fantastisk spændende, og vil give både helt nye features og forbedredede rapporter. Læs Dennis Mortensens blog om [...]

  34. Juan Says:

    great! thanks for the info, really good!

  35. Johan Says:

    Congratulations Dennis, looking forward to both your book and the 9.5 version, this will take YWA another step ahead.. Looks “superfett ut”. /johan

  36. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hej Johan,

    Thanks! and I believe it is “Superfedt” he he :-)

    cheers
    d.

  37. La rassegna della settimana (12): Google, Yahoo! Web Analytics e pubblicità online | TSW Blog Says:

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  38. VisualRevenue | BOOK LAUNCH - Yahoo! Web Analytics: Tracking, Reporting, and Analyzing for Data-Driven Insights Says:

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  39. Theodor Says:

    Looks great..I am so sad i dont use it any more :)

  40. Mark8t Says:

    So this will be released to the public soon?

  41. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey Mark8t,

    It IS released. But you need a Y! account manager to get access. OR a Y! store Account or….

    Cheers
    d.

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  44. Mark8t Says:

    @Dennis, what I meant was when will be available like Google Analytics… Free..

  45. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey Markt8,

    >>@Dennis, what I meant was when will be available like Google Analytics… Free..

    It is FREE! :-)
    ..but access is not provided to everybody and I think it is unlikely that you will see this going-to-market strategy change.

    dennis

  46. Gerry White Says:

    I hate to ask, but any chance of Rubix being released and of course being free ? (or at least being released!)

  47. Dennis R. Mortensen Says:

    Hey Gerry,

    You should expect (as you’ve seen with the upgraded visualizations in 9.5) that we incorporate items from “Rubix” into the main tool.

    sorry mate

    Cheers
    d. :-)

  48. VisualRevenue | Yahoo Web Analytics in 30 minutes (VIDEO) Says:

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  49. Andrew Says:

    Jiri – right now the API is experiencing some rather strange problems. It has had an extensive and powerful feature set for a while (all the way back to early 2008), but there’s just been some severe lag issues. These seem to be related to the migration.

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