PPC-Advice.com

Not long ago I posted a rant on what I thought were major problems with Omniture’s newest releases, SiteCatalyst 14 and SearchCenter 3.  I’ll be honest, it got a lot of attention for my relatively small blog and I thought we were making progress.  It seems a lot of clients are frustrated, and for whatever reason aren’t inclined to make a big switch to other brands like Webtrends.  However, with Yahoo announcing their takeover of IndexTools, an analytics package capable of offering “up 80% of Omniture’s features for FREE”, clients may begin to wonder and possibly wander.

It’s not everyday that an Enterprise-class analytics package gets pegged as ‘soon to be offered free of charge’.  So chalk this move up as one of the most brilliant (and perhaps long-awaited) tactics Yahoo has made in recent weeks.  Undoubtedly another move to make Yahoo more attractive and therefore more valuable to board members and Microsoft (or is it Google now?).

Whatever the case may be, Yahoo has been without a powerful analytics suite for years, while Google Adwords and Google Analytics have seemingly been the dynamic duo of status quo.   It gives Google another reason to continue to perfect Analytics, and gives many frustrated Omniture users an ‘alternate truth’ or maybe even a viable exit plan.

Unfortunately, I’m not one of the many existing partners for IndexTools, but if anyone at Yahoo is reading this, feel free to drop me a line.  As for Omniture, I’m sure not many customers will be too pleased about Yahoo’s announcement, especially on the heels of what can only be described as a rough first quarter.

As I’ve said above, people will certainly wonder, and eventually people will start to wander.