Many popular social networking sites typically make personal information available to companies that track users’ browsing habits and allow them to link anonymous browsing habits to specific people, according to a new study by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
"When you sign up with a social networking site, you are assigned a unique identifier," says Craig Wills, professor of computer science at WPI.
Google Analytics Gets Event Tracking Advanced Segments
Google announced today that users tracking events on their site using Google Analytics can now define advanced segments to isolate event-related sites. The company points to an example of looking at how visits with events compares to visits overall.
PR Newswire Launches Social Media Tracking Tool
PR Newswire has launched Social Media Metrics, a new intelligence tool powered by Sentiment Metrics that allows users to monitor, analyze and measure the impact of what is being said about an organization, brand, or competitor on social media sites.
AdWords Getting New Conversion Tracking Metrics
Google announced today that in the coming months, they will be updating the AdWords conversion tracking metrics in the new AdWords interface, and other account management platforms like AdWords Editor and the AdWords API.
Many Email Marketers Not Tracking Campaigns
A recent study from eROI shows that 18% of email marketers in the US are not tracking their campaigns. The research comes from a survey of over 500 email marketers with the intention of gaining insight into trends and use of analytics in email.
Tracking Santa’s Web Analytics
The North American Aerospace Defense Command, otherwise known as NORAD is tracking Santa Claus’s rounds this year, keeping up a tradition that has been going on for 53 years. Mike Sachoff explains:
House Committee Questions Google, Microsoft On Tracking
How major Internet players follow their users and utilize their activity became the focus of a letter of inquiry sent by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to a number of companies.
Digital Marketers Want Better Tracking Tools
Only 19 percent of interactive marketers can make campaign changes in less than 24 hours according to a new report from Sapient "Interactive Marketing Survey."The Interactive Marketing Survey found that marketers lack the tools to optimize their marketing efforts across the full spectrum of digital channels. More than half felt "only somewhat confident" or "not confident at all" in their firm’s ability to track campaigns on multiple channels in real-time.
Tracking Blog Effectiveness
There are a lot of data points that can be meaningful for tracking blog effectiveness. That is, tracking what happens when visitors arrive at and engage with your blog content. It really comes down to the purpose of your blog. Metrics for a blog that’s focused on making a web site more search engine friendly by adding crawlable content and attracting links is quite different than a blog that’s meant to build thought leadership or brand credibility.
Adobe, Omniture Tracking Issue Addressed Again
John Nack of Adobe posted a brief Q&A related to the issue of Adobe software welcome screens phoning home to a tracking site hosted by analytics firm Omniture.