OX2 Web Analytics blog

Hi folks, we have been lazy bloggers lately but as Aurélie mentioned, newfound parenthood can put a serious dent in your writing time – I learned that the hard way with the arrival of my little Guillaume (isn’t he adorable, though?).

But back to business as usual. By now, everyone in the Web community has heard of two major news items: Google’s ‘Chrome’ browser and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 are about to be released.
You can download Google Chrome starting @ noon Pacific Standard Time, or 21.00 CET.

What does this mean for you as a Web user, as a marketer and/or as a Web analyst?

In practice, not much will change. Usability has not changed radically with either browsers. HTML container pages encapsulate images, Javascript, CSS stylesheets, Flash movies, plug-ins: the usual suspects.

What will change is the way that browsers will compartmentalize navigation into logical units, making tabs the browsing unit of reference, as opposed to the previous gold standard we had all come to know and love: the window. Browsers should also become more streamlined and optimized to be less of a resource hog; a welcome relief for my Firefox and IE7, which whine in unison after I open more than 5 tabs. Google’s official Chrome announcement has an awesome comic-style explanation of how they intend to achieve optimization and compartmentalization from a technical standpoint. A must read!

What can change is the way we consume not only content but also how we are tracked as visitors and how this impacts new content. Here is why.

Among their new features, we find two privacy modes: IE8’s InPrivate Browsing (aka ‘porn mode’) and Chrome’s Incognito Tab. Both functionalities make it possible for the user to compartmentalize a navigation session within a browsing environment. When you’re done browsing, the browser keeps no record of that navigation whatsoever. Yes, this includes cookies.

Some of you will start crying wolf:

Oh noes! Deleting cookies (or at least keeping no trace thereof) means all my visitors are going to be unique visitors every time they visit my site! Whatever am I going to do with my visitor reports now? How am I going to optimize my website?

Wait, didn’t we already have this debate during the whole ComScore/Nielsen reports on cookie blocking/deletion? We never really saw drops in unique visitors or overall traffic. The Internet didn’t break down. Announcers did not lose gazillions of advertising dollars. It’s pretty safe to say we got over this particular ‘predicament’. Also, this isn’t really news to most of us: Safari implemented that feature a long time ago.

I would be more concerned about the loss of persistent cookies such as those used by Omniture, Google Analytics and the gang (eVars, _setVar, etc). This could have an impact on returning visitors and how personalized portals/sites present data to their customers (A/B or multivariate testing, behavorial targeting.) In practice, this would mean a boost in Login events across the board (proportional to new visits) as dropped cookies means you get to re-login every visit.

What about other browsers, you say?

Well, Firefox 3 was a success if we judge from the impressive results of Download Day 2008. What you may not know is that a similar privacy mode did not make the Firefox 3 release. Could Firefox 3 have received that much attention on the topic of privacy?

Opera does not have such a privacy mode in store for a future release as far as I know but that could change if they follow suit to match the other tools’ feature set.

What does it all mean?

For those of you who were wondering, this ’stealth mode’ does not mean you become impervious to banner ads, embedded Flash splash promos and the like. You will continue to use plug-ins or extensions to block said adverts, like you’ve done up to now.

But what really grinds my (Google) gears is this: THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE WEB, PEOPLE! (or web analytics for that matter).

Jim Sterne, as always, came up with a witty-and-yet-to-the-point comment on this so-called ‘end of web analytics as we know it’, emphasizing that visitors and customers should be empowered. Let it be noted that I have my doubts about that Vulcan mind-meld, Jim

Installing a new browser is now a voluntary, free-willed initiative. If anything, Microsoft has learned (the hard way) that you do not ship an operating system and force-feed a web browser onto your end users, foie gras-style. In other words, the fate of the Web -just like your own- is what you make. Before you install a specific piece of software, make sure you know what its exact functionalities are. Don’t come crying because the fine print said you literally sold your soul to Satan once you press the ‘I accept’ button in the end user licence agreement. This goes with the notions of responsability and accountability we use as mantras here at OX2.

More questions spawn from this train of thought:

• What does that tell you about feature requests?
• Is there really a generalized fear and paranoia about Internet usage?
• Maybe this sort of self-discipline about functionalities and EULAs is unrealistic for the consumer market?
• Are people really going to upgrade to IE8 en masse?
• Will corporate Microsoft licenses (including OSes) force entire industries to migrate to IE8?
• Will IT departments really allow employees to use a web browser that deletes browser history, cookies and what have you?
• Is the Internet really just for porn?

There would also be a few more discussions to be had on the future of Google as an operating system, on Microsoft and decaying market share, on Firefox being funded in part by Google, among others. But these are stories for another set of posts.

As always, constructive comments are welcome!

Additional reading:

• Internet Explorer 8 release notes (Aug. 29)
• Google’s announcement of the Chrome browser
• Safari on Windows and privacy mode (in French)