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A recent Google announcement has web tracking firms shaking in their boots. The search giant is experimenting with Google Trends for Websites. Trends tracks user behavior and displays the most popular searches in a variety of categories. Trends for Websites goes one step further and allows users to compare traffic patterns at major websites.

Google’s official blog claims the move is, “a fun tool that gives you a view of how popular your favorite websites are, including your own!” Users can enter in up to five different websites to compare traffic data, related sites, and the searches that lead visitors to them. Competitors like Comscore, Compete, and Alexa are likely to think it’s far more significant than simply a plaything. Those who track websites for clients and sell statistics and reports won’t view Trends for Websites as a “fun tool”.

One of the reasons it presents a problem for competitors is because of the way in which they collect traffic data. As a recent Techcrunch article points out, “All these services fall prey to one core problem - they don’t have a way to directly measure the traffic on the websites that they’re monitoring.” Companies like Comscore can collect data only from opt-in websites, and because of this limitation, their data is inaccurate or one-sided.

Google, on the other hand, can track data from a combination of sources. Trends for Websites, “combines information from a variety of sources, such as aggregated Google search data, aggregated opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in consumer panel data, and other third-party market research.” The algorithm incorporates millions of users and data points, potentially increasing the accuracy of the results. Since it’s a Google Labs service, the team plans to monitor and improve the results as time goes on.

While Google is already a player in the web metrics market with Analytics, Trends for Websites takes the data they collect public, allowing anyone to explore and interpret website visitation trends. In addition to providing traffic monitoring into, Trends for Websites will also show other sites visited by the same users. For example, if I look at statistics for bestbuy .com, it shows a huge spike in the months before Christmas. It also shows that those who shopped online at Best Buy also checked out the e-commerce sites for Circuit City, GameStop, and Fry’s Electronics. While retail sites might not want to share users, blogs or content-based sites with common readership could use Trends for Websites to set up advertising deals or joint projects.

While Trends for Websites definitely has its limitations and pitfalls (not all sites are tracked), the service has the potential to put traffic data in the hands of anyone who wants it. This suits Google, since many of their services are free, but those who sell website metrics are going to have to find new ways to compete.

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

By Haley January Eckels