Google has announced today the launch of Google Analytics. Essentially, it’s Urchin 5.0 for free.

Once must use a Google account to access the tools. This seems just one more step in the consolidating of user information by Google.

Urchin 5.0 is a 3rd party cookie serving system. So, if you’re currently having issues with 3rd party cookies, this software won’t solve your problems like a 1st party system will. However, if you don’t know where to start for stats and integrated information, then this might be a great place to start.

The other aspect that hasn’t been talked about yet is it’s ability to integrate with Google’s cross channel tracking system. Google launched a program quite some time ago which enabled one to track any PPC or Advertising action on their website with the Google code. This might be a way for Google to facilitate for tracking all your advertising.

Before you think that Google is trying to store all your information and could use it against you, remember:
1. The use of Urchin is voluntary.
2. YSM (yahoo search marketing) has been allowing advertisers to utilize this type of tracking for well over a year.

Along with the free product, Google has a new set of information on their site entitled, Conversion University. Currently there are two sections, Driving Traffic, and Converting Visitors.

If you’ve been using PPC and online advertising for a while, the articles will seem quite basic. If you’re still new to the PPC game, they’re worth reading (as is just about anything that deals with converting visitors).

As the site is currently down (seems the website wasn’t ready for the traffic), there is no way to tell quite what will be involved, such as:

1. What is Google’s Privacy Policy on this tracking?
2. How often will your analytics be down?
3. Will Google place a visible Urchin logo on your site (like the Google conversion tracker does on any converting pages at present)
4. How will this affect your Google logins. Do you want your Froogle, GMail, Local Business, AdWords, AdSense, Search Query, RSS Feeds, Bookmarks, and Tracking information in a single database?

Only time will tell the success of the program; however, there is no doubt that it will be widely used. Analytics are often the last thing small advertisers approach, and the no cost barrier will help small advertisers get more out of their visitors and statistics than they normally would. For that, Google has done a good service for small businesses. For the rest - we’ll see.

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