Google Renames Urchin Google Analytics, Makes It Free
Google has renamed its Urchin web analytics unit to be — yep — Google Analytics (as Gary predicted), in a move that follows with similar rebranding such as Keyhole being renamed Google Earth. And just like with Keyhole …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google had already absorbed Keyhole into the Google Earth brand. Extending that branding pattern to Urchin pairs a purchased analytics product with Google's name and a zero-price offer, a combination broad enough to draw same-day coverage from ZDNet, The New York Times, and ClickZ.
First-order effects
- Urchin loses its standalone product identity as Google markets the service as Google Analytics, while removing the purchase price for prospective users.
- Google gains a branded entry point into web measurement, lowering the barrier for site operators to adopt its analytics service.
Second-order effects
- Paid web-analytics vendors face a sharper value-for-money test: features and service, rather than basic access to traffic data, must justify a fee against Google's free offer.
- Web publishers and marketers can treat measurement as a lower-cost operating input, increasing the audience for products built around analytics data.
Third-order effects
- If Google sustains the free model, web analytics shifts toward a platform capability rather than a separately purchased tool, concentrating adoption around providers able to subsidize the service.
- Google's Keyhole-to-Earth and Urchin-to-Analytics rebrands point to acquisition integration in which the parent brand, not the acquired name, becomes the customer-facing asset.
The trend: Google is using its brand and free distribution to turn acquired web tools into broad platform services.