WASP Blog

Looking for Beta Testers for WASP 2.0

Dave Renouf — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:10:22 +0000

We are almost ready to launch WASP 2.0, but we need to do another round of beta testing. We are looking for users to jump in and help.

We will give you a 30-day license to access and use all the functionalities of WASP 2.0.

Email us at support [at] webanalyticssolutionprofiler.com for more details.

Can’t wait to make the final announcement!

Who Runs Analytics? Top 500 Retail Websites Report

Dave Renouf — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:00:09 +0000

In January 2010, iPerceptions ran an analysis of the top 500 retail websites to determine how many were using web analytics tools. Online retailers are recognized leaders when it comes to integrating new web applications. A fast-growing, conversion-driven group, their choices often foreshadow those of other industries. Using iPerceptionsâ€™ WASP Market Research, we fed the Internet Retailer Top 500 Retail Web Sites into the WASP crawler, and based our results on the 458 sites that were operational. Last January, StÃ©phane Hamel, founder of Immeria, wrote â€œAn Immersion in Analyticsâ€ after conducting a similar study of the same sites. His results form our 2009 data.

WHO RUNS ANALYTICS

In the last year, the use of clickstream analytics tools rose by 10% in the online retail space. External research confrmed a 9% growth in clickstream analytics technology in 2009, which suggests that technological growth is in line with market consumption.

Breakdown by Vendor

When the results were broken down by vendor, the use of Google Analytics increased by 19% â€” more than twice as much as the next leading vendor. Google Analytics is a free product, unlike the ones from Omniture and Coremetrics, which surely accounted for at least some of its growth. Among paid products, Omniture gained the most ground through 2009, confrming that these tools have a great deal of value.

Is one tool enough?

% of the Top 500 Sites Running Clickstream Analytics by Number of Tools

In the last year, the share of retail websites running more than one clickstream analytics tool increased by 9%, begging the questionâ€” why is one tool not enough? Are retailers comparing results from multiple tools to ensure accuracy of the data? Or, does no existing product satisfy all retailing analytics needs?

% of the Top 500 Sites Running Clickstream Analytics by Number of Tools

In January 2010, online retailers who were using more than one tool were almost certainly using Google Analytics. Results suggest that Google Analytics is the easy (and fnancially justifable) choice among retailers, but it is not always the frst choice among customers who are looking for specifc functionality and can afford it.

Other website tools

The second most popular tool, after clickstream analytics, was an advertising network (Ad network), used by approximately one-third of online retailers to host ads. Testing tools, such as Google Website Optimizer and Omniture Test and Target, came in third, followed by Search Engine Marketing (SEM) tools, such as ChannelAdvisor and comScore. Voice of Customer (VOC) tools, such as iPerceptionsâ€™ webValidator and 4Q Survey, were used by 8% of retailers (incidentally, a signifcantly higher use compared to other industry sites). Targeting, such as Amadesa, and Recorder tools, such as ClickTale have low adoption rates in this market. Social sharing tools, such as RPX and AddThis, are also on the rise, with more sites wanting to integrate social media components, liaise with social media/networking sites, and generally create a sense of community.

Conclusion

Running clickstream analytics tools is becoming increasingly important for major online retailers. Google Analytics is the most popular tool, and has gained signifcant market share. Still, there is evidence that paid products still have a safe hold. Based on the premise that retail websites predict behavior in other industries, the use of additional analytics tools will continue to gain momentum. Finally, as clickstream tools reach market saturation and retailers reach the limit of insights gain through these tools, they will increasingly turn to other analytics solution such as Testing, SEM, VoC to enhance the effciency and quality of their online experience.

About WASP

WASP is a software that allows web analytics professionals to easily perform quality assurance and understand how their web analytics solution is implemented. The WASP Market Research edition includes a powerful crawler that can automate tool detections and detailed reporting for quality assurance or market research. For more information, please visit webanalyticssolutionprofler.com

About iPerceptions

iPerceptions is a leading web-focused Voice of Customer analytics provider. Its webValidator Continuous Listening solution, A&B Interactive Dashboard, WASP (Web Analytics Solution Profler), iPerceptions Satisfaction Index (iPSI) and free website survey solution (4Q) turn thousands of data points into easy-to- understand strategic and tactical decision support for website marketers. iPerceptionsâ€™ clients include such well-known brands as InterContinental Hotels, General Motors, Dell, Hyundai, LG Electronics, Choice Hotels International, BMW and Monster Worldwide.

WASP 1.31.6 release

Dave Renouf — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:01:48 +0000

Better Support from crawl for Amniture
Many bug fixes
Fix the “open sidebar on start” so it only open once on new version

WASP 1.31.2 Release

Dave Renouf — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:42:41 +0000

-Fixed an issue with the crawler in some conditions
-Fixed an issue with bad robot.txt and sitemap.xml
-Fixed an issue with illegal character in tag attribute

WASP 1.30.14 Released

Dave Renouf — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:14:48 +0000

We just released a new version of WASP. Please update from the main download link.

New features:

Detection: e-Visit

Detection: Survey Monkey

Detection: Survey Gizmo

Detection: Cobalt

Detection: Audience Science

Detection: LinkStorm

Detection: Blue Lithium

Better iPerceptions detections

Fixes an issue with the sidebar width

WASP Pro replaced by WASP Market Reasearch

Dave Renouf — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:10:28 +0000

To better satisfy customer demands, we have decided to Merge WASP Pro and WASP Market Research. Additionally, the price of WASP Market Research is now at the level of Pro, $699 instead of $999.

This is great news for our customers because they now get all the benefit of Market Research for the price of Pro, and the typical Pro user will now benefit from all the Market Research features.

WASP 1.30.10 release

Dave Renouf — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:39:40 +0000

Please update to version 1.30.10 as it fixes some minor issues:

-Fixed an issue with the internal DB

You can update from our download page at: http://webanalyticssolutionprofiler.câ€¦

Tracking tool diagnostics

Dave Renouf — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:12:55 +0000

We received this email a while ago and recently received more information. I thought it would be appropriate to share some of the insight that came out of it

—————————————————————————————-

Greetings,

Iâ€™m Matteo , developer in xxxxxx.com.

Iâ€™m currently developing a tracking system for the site using WASP as main tool for checking and testing, and Iâ€™m facing a strange problem:

in some cases, when I try to track forms in a onSubmit event handler, Â I get WASP displaying correctly the data I want to track, but no packet is sent to the tracking system.

I know that this is an implementation issue, but I expected WASP to show nothing if the packets are not sent.

Can you please provide me with some detail about how does WASP capture tracking packets?

I really like the tool, and Iâ€™d like to keep using it, but Â I really have to know that it is reliable enough.

Thanks for your time and for assistance

—————————————————————————————-
Matteo confirm Wasp shows the data is generated by the tracker but he does not see it on the receiving end. He goes along and give more detail in the next email.
—————————————————————————————-

The problem, in more detail, is the following:

Iâ€™m using WASP along with firebug (that has a good packet sniffing feature).

I cannot see the image request with the sniffer but WASP actually shows me the tracking. In all the other cases the packets are shown, and I can see the collected data on the tracking system side, so Iâ€™m sure Iâ€™m tracking on the correct ID.

You told that WASP watches for packets, as I supposed. This is the reason of my last email: I still cannot figure out what is happening. Probably, as you said, is a problem involving the implementation and the particular environment.

Thanks anyway, if I figure out whatâ€™s going on Iâ€™ll let you know immediately.

Matteo

—————————————————————————————-

He also does not see anything with Firebug but confirms he is using the proper ID for tracking.Â Recently, we got the resolution from Matteo:

—————————————————————————————-

The problem was the related to NS_BINDING_ABORTED error code (as seen in HttpFox).

Probably this is what is happening:

Firebug is smart enough (or not smart enough, depending on your point of view) to hide all the ajax call that will never come back with a response.

This can happen if you send out an async call, and then quickly tell the browser to change web page (e.g. all the events with a page change, like link clicks).

WASP shows the packet, and this seems to be the right behavior. We could say that, in this strange case, we can be sure to being trying to track the event (WASP shows it) but we cannot be sure to actually track it (we cannot wait for the tracking system response, due to user experience constraints).

Hope this is all (and hope this is what is really happening)

Thanks for all, and have a happy new year

Matteo

—————————————————————————————-

This means, NS_BINDING_ABORTED cancels the async call back and the analytics server did not succeed. Due to the page being changed too quickly, the async connection was killed in the process.

Firebug Â did not display the call at all making it hard to see what was going on.

WASP was properly showing the tracking code being executed and sent to Google Analytics by the client’s browser but didnâ€™t show the error code of the aborted connection. Itâ€™s also the fastest and most convenient way to confirm itâ€™s working properly

HTTP Fox, being a more technical analysis of network traffic, was properly showing all the connections and status codes. However, you need greater technical skills to use it and itâ€™s a little more tedious to use.

WASP 1.30.8 release

Dave Renouf — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:54:12 +0000

Please update to version 1.30.8 as it fixes some minor issues:

-Fixes an issue with the license in relation to the date
-Fixes some other minor issues

You can do a manual update from our download page at: http://webanalyticssolutionprofiler.c…

2.0 Alpha Release

Dave Renouf — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:22:40 +0000

We are starting to play around with our 2.0 release and decided to make it available to all.

This release features some new internals and is ready for the real new feature set for 2.0

You can get it here: WASP 2.0