It found that there were 9.98 million queries for the terms “Michael” and “Jackson” across the top 25 search engines and news and social media sites in the week ended June 27. Compete said that was more than 24 times the number of queries for information using the terms “Iran” and “election” during the week before.

X Change 2009, a highly focused web analytics conference for and by real-world practitioners and web analytics managers, today announced the stellar line-up of Huddle Leaders. X Change is a peer-to-peer conference where measurement experts from leading companies host discussions on topics key to their online business. Building on the success of two previously sold-out conferences, the 2009 X Change will feature recognized experts from diverse online industries ranging from Retail to Financial Services to Media and Publishing. Topics and topic leaders this year include Nokia talking about measuring the mobile Internet, Intuit talking about successful staffing strategies, Charles Schwab talking about data-driven site ...

Have you checked out Eric Peterson's latest? Nedstat just announced the publication of 'The truth about Mobile Analytics', a white paper authored by Eric T. Peterson of Web Analytics Demystified and co-authored by Michiel Berger, Chief Innovations and Thomas Pottjegort, Senior Technical Consultant at Nedstat. With the surge of interest among businesses in having a presence on the mobile internet, business owners are facing the urgency of quantifying the value of their investments in this new channel. The white paper examines the central challenges associated with mobile analytics and addresses some of the distractions commonly used to confuse analytics buyers. “While a number of mobile-specific ...

Converting website abandoners with real-time analytics, SeeWhy, Inc. today launched a real-time website analytics service called Abandonment Tracker Free, the world's first free abandonment tracking service. Users can sign up for the service at http://www.seewhy.com/atfree. Abandonment Tracker Free is available as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that makes it easy to convert up to 30 percent of website visitors who had previously abandoned their shopping carts, online forms, applications and registrations. With Abandonment Tracker Free, companies can gain back up to 30 percent of lost revenues, making this service one of the highest ROI solutions in the industry. Abandonment Tracker Free provides a simple and easy ...

The first-ever study of vendor compliance with Web Analytics Association (WAA) standards finds analytics vendors slowly moving towards standardized definitions of key metrics and reporting concepts, but not all vendors fully align with each standard, according to research released today by independent evaluation firm, CMS Watch. These findings come from the latest version of the CMS Watch Web Analytics Report 2009, which evaluates twenty web analytics platforms against twelve potential use-cases. CMS Watch today made available its WAA Compatibility matrices available as a free download at http://www.cmswatch.com/Analytics/. WAA standards define twenty-six key metrics and reporting concepts so that customers, vendors, and ...

On behalf of Jim Novo, the Web Analytics Association (WAA) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) Continuing Studies are pleased to announce and congratulate Bobby Hewitt, president, owner and director of conversion for Creative Thirst, on achieving the 2008 Jim Novo Award of Academic Excellence. Novo is the co-chair of the education committee for the WAA and a significant contributor to the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics program. The annual Jim Novo Award of Academic Excellence, launched in 2007, is designed to honor the graduate with the highest grade average over all four courses of the UBC Web Analytics program. Hewitt ...

Toronto has the analytics spotlight this week as the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) Analytics Conference opens. The SMX Analytics Conference is the first conference to focus on search analytics – the convergence of search marketing and analytics. This two-day conference programmed by search industry gurus Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman is unique in that it focuses on using analytics to leverage your investment in search marketing and emphasizes analytics best practices to get the most out of the search budget. Online companies are turning to web analytics to better understand visitor behavior and to improve a web site's organization, message, and user experience, according ...