Interface of Google Analytics

Posted on July 20, 2007
Filed Under Thoughts & Ideas |

As most of you probably know, the old interface of Google Analytics was announced to be inaccessible from the 18th of July. In my opinion this is both good and bad news. I liked the old version better than the new one, probably only because I am used to it. However, I am sure the new interface has better options for the user. According to Google Analytics Blog these are some of the new functions

Hourly Reporting
Many of you listed hourly reporting as the most important feature missing in the new interface. We’ve put it back. Several of the reports now have a “View by: Daily/Hourly” switch that allows you to select whether you want to see your data by day or by hour. Andy Beal, our friends at Yelp, and thousands of others can rejoice in their hourly window to the world.

Clickable URLs
Danny Sullivan and a legion of others will be thrilled to see that we’ve added the ability to click straight through to external pages from links referenced in reports. Just click on the icon next to any link listed in the Referring Sites, Top Content, Top Landing Pages, and Top Exit Pages reports.

Cross Segmentation by Network Location
Many of you expressed disappointment that you couldn’t cross segment reports by Network Location. Now you can.

Increased number of data rows per page
The interface now allows you to view up to 500 rows of data on a single report page, increased from a maximum of 100 rows.

Bounce Rate increase/decrease
Our always observant resident analytics evangelist, Avinash Kaushik, pointed out that an increase in bounce rate (not desirable) was displayed in green and a decrease in bounce rate (a desirable result) was displayed in red. He was right, so we flipped the colors. Bounce rate increases are now displayed in red and bounce rate decreases are displayed in green. Ah, much better.

AdWords Integration
It’s now much easier to link your AdWords account to your Google Analytics account, so if you haven’t done it yet, now is the time.

So I decided to use the old interface until it would be removed, and obviously I would start using the new one. According to Google this change was supposed to take place the 18th of July. But as you can see on the picture below, the old interface is still active.

Google

Google Analytics

Somehow this is a bit annoying, since I would like to start using the new one, and get the benefits of the new features, but I know I am not going to use it before the old one is removed. Anyway, I guess the change will take place within a few days. That is the only way to cure my addiction.

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