Let's make the web a better place.

We've recently acquired the San Diego-based web analytics company Urchin Software, and look forward to providing the tools that will benefit not only website owners and advertisers but ultimately every web surfer. We're constantly striving to make the world's information universally accessible and useful; Urchin web analytics does just this by giving website owners the data to more effectively communicate their content and improve the web experience for everyone.

As a web surfer, you get a better experience when website owners develop better content with your needs in mind. If you advertise or own a website, Urchin web analytics can help you optimize your content and increase your advertising return on investment (ROI).

As the first step in making web analytics more available to everyone, we're announcing that Urchin On Demand is now available for just $199 per month (previously $495 per month). If you'd like to try it out, sign up for the 30-day free trial.

What is web analytics?

Web analytics provides advertisers and website owners with the tools to better understand their users' browsing experience. This information enables them to increase their advertising return on investment (ROI) by optimizing online marketing campaigns, tracking referral sources, improving web design and content, and identifying visitor preferences.

Google is excited to offer these new capabilities to all website owners. You can learn more and sign up for a free trial of Urchin On Demand at http://www.urchin.com.

I'm an Urchin user. How will I be affected?

If you're an On Demand user, you'll automatically receive the new low price of $199 per month, along with future features and innovations as they become available. You should continue to contact Urchin support (http://www.urchin.com/support/) with any questions you may have about the product.

I'm an AdWords advertiser. How will Urchin help me make AdWords more successful?

AdWords is all about showing targeted ads to web searchers so that they choose the ads that are most relevant to them. But what happens after they click on your ad? Urchin will provide you with the actionable information that you can use to increase your ROI by tracking conversions, improving your content, and optimizing your AdWords campaigns.

Consider web analytics as the next step in conversion tracking – don't worry, we'll still be supporting our free Conversion Tracking tool – we want to provide you with as many tools as possible to improve your advertising campaigns and make the web experience better for everyone. We encourage you to read more about Urchin and web analytics here.

How does Urchin On Demand work?

Urchin anonymously tracks how visitors interact with a website including where they came from, what they did on a site, and whether they completed any of the site's conversion goals. Website owners can then review this information in easy to read reports.

Urchin works much like Google's Conversion Tracking tool. Urchin places a cookie on a user's computer when he or she visits a website where Urchin has been installed. As the user navigates throughout the site, Urchin uses the cookie to identify which pages the user visited and where he or she exited the site. Urchin then provides the website owner with aggregated (totaled across all the visitors of that site) information about general visitor behavior.

How do I get started with Urchin on Demand?

Installation of Urchin On Demand is similar to conversion tracking, and just as simple. You'll need to visit the Urchin sign-up page and enter your account and billing information. You'll then download and install a piece of JavaScript code from Urchin and place it on your website. Next, you'll log in to your new Urchin On Demand account and set your conversion goals. Wait for a few hours for traffic and you'll be ready to start evaluating your website performance.

For more installation information and support, visit http://help.urchin.com

What versions of Urchin are available, and what's the difference between them?

Urchin currently offers both an On Demand service and a downloadable software product. Urchin On Demand has the latest reports and technology. Installation simply requires that you add a snippet of JavaScript code on pages you wish to track, and website data is hosted on Google servers so there are no additional server or hardware requirements. Urchin software is hosted on the website owner's system and is more difficult to install as it requires additional IT expertise to configure and set up. For the majority of website owners, we recommend Urchin On Demand due to the ease of setup and lower up-front cost (in most cases, total cost of ownership will be lower with On Demand). To learn more about the differences between Urchin software and On Demand, please visit http://www.urchin.com.

In what languages and countries is Urchin available?

We're pleased to offer Urchin On Demand in English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. Simply navigate to http://www.urchin.com and choose your language preference. You can download a free trial of Urchin in your language in a few minutes and be gathering information the same day.

An important note on privacy

We take privacy seriously, so we design and operate our services with the protection of users' privacy in mind. If you install Urchin, we ask that you make certain disclosures on your website (see Section 7.2 of the Urchin Terms of Service). We also advise you to review the privacy laws in your region to ensure compliance.