Google Buys Urchin
Yesterday Google announced that it has agreed to purchase web analytics software company Urchin. While it's a bit too early for this to have caused a stir, it's undoubtedly coming with predictions and pontifications as to what this move means.
The biggest concern that seems to be brewing (still early though) in the forums over at Search Engine Watch seems to be the belief that as many users use Urchin to verify and monitor the traffic the get from AdWords and trust it as an unbiased party, that with Google at the helm the discrepancies between what Google themselves report through their AdWords stats, and what Urchin reports will coincidentally start showing more and more similar results indicating manipulation of the figures.
Personally, I doubt as though it really matters. Google will always base their charges on what AdWords reports. In the end you have to base your AdWords bids and decisions on ROI. Does paying x for phrase y produce more money than it costs? If the answer is "yes" then it's worthwhile and if it doesn't then it should be dropped. Unless Google somehow messes with Urchin to a point where it starts hindering your ROI then it's all a moot point.
I look forward to seeing what they come up with and how they use this already fantastic analysis tool. Congrats to the folks at Urchin and congrats to Google.
The biggest concern that seems to be brewing (still early though) in the forums over at Search Engine Watch seems to be the belief that as many users use Urchin to verify and monitor the traffic the get from AdWords and trust it as an unbiased party, that with Google at the helm the discrepancies between what Google themselves report through their AdWords stats, and what Urchin reports will coincidentally start showing more and more similar results indicating manipulation of the figures.
Personally, I doubt as though it really matters. Google will always base their charges on what AdWords reports. In the end you have to base your AdWords bids and decisions on ROI. Does paying x for phrase y produce more money than it costs? If the answer is "yes" then it's worthwhile and if it doesn't then it should be dropped. Unless Google somehow messes with Urchin to a point where it starts hindering your ROI then it's all a moot point.
I look forward to seeing what they come up with and how they use this already fantastic analysis tool. Congrats to the folks at Urchin and congrats to Google.
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO at 1:15 PM
