Analytics Insider

Google is attempting to jump over language barriers in a single bound. The search king this week launched a new feature to convert search results into 12 different languages. The long-term implications could be a boon for e-commerce.Dubbed Google Translate, the tool is aligned with the company’s mission to make the world’s information universally accessible. The new cross-language feature allows searchers to find and view results on foreign language Web pages in their own native language.

“If the ideal result page to a query is written in a language that you don’t understand, then up until now it would be very hard to get access to this information,” Google research scientist Franz Och wrote on Google’s blog. The tool is initially available for searchers who speak English, Arabic, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.

This is an interesting development because, of course, you can track what country your users came from with Web analytics. Typically, if you are getting significant traffic from a particular country, you may decide that you want to translate your content for their reading enjoyment — and for your potential profit.

Google Translation could be the first step in the process of making the web more universal. Imagine if folks from any country who spoke any tongue could read your content, and you could convince them to make purchases. Of course, there are cultural differences that could cause some stumbling blocks. Nevertheless, this has interesting long-term potential.

I was discussing this with Greg Sterling today from Sterling Market Intelligence. He hadn’t considered the e-commerce angle initially, but validated it at some level. Here’s what he said:

“Google presents Google Translate as a way to improve the experience of non-English speakers becasuse there are many more web sites in English than there are in other languages. So it opens up that content to people in other countries, but it does go both ways and it may yield transactions based on making more sites more accessible.

“There’s a challenge in doing business in other countries and cultures. You have to speak the language and there are some cultural issues. This is not going to address those nuances of culture, but it’s a quick and dirty way for your site to get exposed to people in other places. I think travel is going to be one of those categories where this is immediately beneficial.”

I agree with Greg. The Internet is just getting started. This could be the beginning of somethign marvelous. Of course, web analytics vendors already offer some great geographic stats, but what more might we do if the whole word was really our oyster? if language wasn’t an issue?

Staffing firm Aquent and Eric T. Peterson, noted web analytics author, consultant, and speaker, have announced a first-of-its-kind partnership to help organizations more successfully leverage web analytics as part of their online marketing efforts. Peterson, head of Web Analytics Demystified, will work with Aquent to create an end-to-end solution for organizations seeking everything from web analytics strategy and vendor assessment to software deployment and team staffing.

“Understanding your website‚s performance is essential to online marketing success. Unfortunately, many organizations struggle with people, process, and technology challenges as they attempt to leverage advanced web analytics,” Peterson said. “Combining my firm’s approach to web analytics strategy with Aquent’s proven ability to provide high-quality staff will allow our clients to effectively address all three of these challenges.”

Eric is on to something here. I knew it would only be a matter of days after leaving Visual Sciences that he would strike a partnership of some sort, but I didn’t see this one coming. This is brilliant, what with the online job search space growing and talent crunches making it more difficult for recruiters to find superstar employees becoming a long-term reality in many industries.

Web analytics is applicable to any industry doing business online, but this is a particularly good place to start. Aquent’s clients truly will be able to accomplish more in less time with fewer resoures with the appropriate collection, analysis and application of web analytics data.

WebSideStory officially changed its name to Visual Sciences — and released HitBox 4.0. The announcements come at the heals of Eric T. Peterson’s departure from the firm.

What’s interesting about HitBox is that it’s tapping into Web 2.0 analytics. HBX Analytics expands the dimensions of analysis beyond the tracking of basic Web sites to include the tracking of Web 2.0 technologies and content, such as streaming video and audio, RSS feeds and podcasts, to more fully analyze audience interaction.

This is pretty cool stuff and much needed. It’s also extremely expensive. There are lots of free and low-cost tools that are rolling out to measure social media, though perhaps not with the same depth. If you are in this Web 2.0 game for the millions, you probably need Hitbox 4.0 or something like it. If you are a cool cat with your own game going, you’ll do well with the freebies.