Yahoo Improves Site Analysis Services

Sunnyvale, California-based Web pioneer Yahoo has begun rolling out a test version of its new Web traffic analysis utility, Yahoo Web Analytics, that offered Web site owners and advertisers methods for tracking visitor interaction with sites using the service. The new Yahoo service, which brought site owners a variety of customizable reports and graphs, was based on technology developed by Web analytics provider IndexTools which Yahoo purchased in April.

Yahoo began the first portion of a phased rollout for Yahoo Web Analytics that it said would extend into 2009 before completion, with the company's roughly 13,000 Yahoo Small Business customers being among the first to gain access to the service.

"We have already started to roll Yahoo Web Analytics out to advertisers who seek Yahoo’s help to build custom micro-sites, as well as to third-party application developers who build widgets and other mini-apps for Yahoo users via our developer network or our new Yahoo Open Strategy tools," Jitendra Kavathekar, vice president of Yahoo Web Analytics wrote Wednesday in a message on the Yahoo blog announcing the service.

When Yahoo purchased Budapest, Hungary-based Web traffic measurement company Tensa Kft, also known as IndexTools, it sought to boost its Web analytics offerings for online marketers. Self-funded IndexTools, which was founded in 2000, had seen revenue growth each year since 2002 and a high rate of customer retention before being acquired by Yahoo. The new Yahoo Web Analytics service announced Wednesday was built on IndexTools scalable and comprehensive platform for monitoring and analyzing sophisticated marketing campaigns.

- SearchEngineGenie.com