This is Part III of a three part guest post series on how to measure Rich Internet Applications.

Judah Phillips, web analyst for Reed Publications, is joining us here to write about measuring rich internet applications (RIAs). In Part I, he wrote about what is Rich Internet? In part II, he wrote about measuring RIAs with Google Analytics. Tonight, he writes the final chapter, measuring RIAs with Unica. I pulled this into three pieces and so had to edit [see my notes inside square brackets like these] in case you hadn’t already read his other pieces. Plus, I am somewhat comatose after taking the red eye back from Google Analytics training last night, so forgive me if I copy his work upside down. In any case - here is the famous Judah Phillips on measuring Rich Internet:

For those fortunate enough to have made a major investment in Web Analytics, you could [measure rich internet powerfully], if not as simply [as with Google Analytics], and within a much more focused context using a tool like Unica NetInsight. Unica NetInsight is an advanced web analytics tool for cross-channel data integration and current awareness of online behavior and demographics. It’s really neat!Tracking RIA with NetInsight is straightforward; however, you need to page tag. What that means is that you’ll need some basic fluency in web programming or some geeks on your team. I’d recommend that you work with your developers from “phase zero” making web analytics endemic to the site development process. Ain’t that right, Eric Peterson?

A best practice for page tagging is to ensure that you have some way to centrally manage your tags, whether via a content management system (CMS), master template, include file, global footer, universal header, galactic widgetizing optimizer and so on. That way, you don’t have to manage change across the inevitable mess and disorganization caused by hard-coded page tags.

Here’s a glimpse of Unica’s page tag:

To tag a browser “event”, use a javascript function (MyEventHandler) and call the Unica NetInsight function ntptLinkTag() passing the name of the event (myevent) and any values you want (‘color” and “red” in ntptAddPair below), like this:

To track a Rich Internet Application (RIA) event, use the same procedure for tagging a standard JavaScript browser event. You’d call the ntptEventTag API function and pass extra event value information as parameter to ntptEventTag, using the ntptAddPair and ntptDropPair helper functions as necessary. Here’s what I mean:

Using NetInsight to track Flash is little more complicated. First you want to make sure the Flash is published with support for FSCommands. Talk to the geeks to find out. Then, add the Unica Page Tag to the HTML container. Now add the Unica FSCommand command handler logic to HTML. Check it out:

NetInsight enables tagging RIA in FLASH FLEX. First, call the ntptEventTag API function through fscommands. Pass extra event value information as parameter to ntptEventTag. If you want, you can use the ntptAddPair and ntptDropPair helper functions through fscommands. Here’s an example:

So there you have a few examples of measuring events and RIA using various methods in free and not-so-free software. Advanced web analytics stuff isn’t magic, it’s just the application of interdisciplinary concepts in action look magical.

To less technical web analysts, all the code may read like science fiction runes and hieroglyphics, but study up on this event tracking stuff for awhile. Ask questions to your geeky friends and colleagues. Contact your vendor (they all should be able to do something like this). Make event tracking and (and event pathing!) part of your web analytics practice and process. Use the data to reconcile engagement measures, understand content effectiveness, and drive user experience and strategy in the Web 2.0 world.

Yesterday, famous guest blogger Judah Phillips of Reed Publishing wrote Part I of a three-part guess post for this blog. Part I was, What are Rich Internet Applications? Today, we have Part II, How to measure them with Google Analytics. (And the follow up will be, how to measure them with Unica.)

Before you read this post, you might want to read a post that Justin Cutroni published on Saturday night. He wrote about tracking clicks to pages where you make the name up, because you can’t put the code on the page. Links that take you off the page, .pdfs, etc. It is a good basis for what Judah is going to talk about: creating page names out of thin air and then using the pretend pages to track events (and hence, rich media) in GA. So here we are, lucky again to have Judah Phillips:

Since we all know about page tags, let’s get down to business with “the Google” and how it tracks “the Rich Media:”

Google Analytics enables tracking of any browser event, such as Javascript and Flash events. Those smart folks at Google have a little JavaScript function called urchinTracker() that enables event tracking. Use the JavaScript function with an argument specifying a name for the event.

For example, the function:

javascript:urchinTracker(’/mysite/flashrichmedia/playbutton’);

logs each occurrence of that Flash event as a page view of

/mysite/flashrichmedia/playbutton.

Some caveats:
1) Always use a forward slash to begin the argument.
2) Actual pages with these filenames do not need to exist.
3) You can organize your events into any structure or hierarchy you want.

Important: Google says to place your tracking code “between the opening tag and the JavaScript call” if your pages include a call to urchinTracker(), utmLinker(), utmSetTrans(), or utmLinkPost().

For example, if the page view is the major event and the “play” event a minor event; then, your hiearchy would be Page View > Event, where the page contains an event, such that:

/mysite/ria_bittons/playbutton
/mysite/ria_bittons/pausebutton
/mysite/ria_bittons/playbutton
/mysite/ria_clips/clip

Some example of the code (from Google Help):

on (release) {// Track with no actiongetURL(”javascript:urchinTracker(’/folder/file’);”);} 

This one above tracks when you click and release (although technically, it just notices the release) of a flash button (and records the file you specify as a page view).

on (release) {//Track with actiongetURL(”javascript:urchinTracker(’/folder/file’);”);_root.gotoAndPlay(3);myVar = “Flash Track Test”}

The second one is the same, but by using a function,
passing it a parameter, and
identifying the instance you want to track, you can measure when your file was used
in a specific scene in a little flash movie. So it is a more specific
method for handling event tracking in Flash.

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {getURL(”javascript:urchinTracker(’/folder/file’);”);} 

And the third one repeats the action throughout the movie so that each time the file is loaded, it gets tracked as an event. If you were to pass a unique file at the end of the movie, you could recognize it using this method (or the other methods) to know that the whole movie was watched (as long as your session doesn’t time out).

Now wait until Google updates your analytics to see if it all worked.

Before I introduce our famous guest blogger, Judah Phillips, let me explain why I wanted a beginner’s intro to Rich Internet Applications.

Rich Internet (which will be defined below, I promise), is all the rage. But (IMHO) it seems like everyone says, “Here’s what Rich Internet is - then some magic occurs — now we can measure it.” So I wrote Judah Phillips, one of the people who is making a name for himself in this space, and asked if he would do a guest post for this blog that really showed how to do the measurement. Today, we’ll start with, what is Rich Internet? (and will get to real coding by tomorrow.)

Judah is Director of Web Analytics for Reed Business Information, an enormous publishing company. He is an active member of the Boston Internet and non-profit communities and a member of the WAA’s marketing committee (that’s how I know him). He will be speaking at the Emetrics Summit in San Francisco with fellow analytics geek Ian Houston. So here is Judah on RIA:

For Web Analytics beginners, it’s not easy. All this talk about “the death of the page view,” “AJAX,” “rich media,” “engagement,” and “events” is enough to make even the most savvy Web analyst think twice about what we’re measuring these days.

So what is a Rich Internet Application (RIA) anyway, and why is it so important? RIAs are very interactive applications or web sites. Flash is a rich application. AJAX is rich. A familiar use of these kinds of technologies is Google Maps. And notice – when you use Google Maps, the name of the page doesn’t change. (So now you see where all that page view death conversation comes from.) “Traditional” web analytics care about when the page name changes – they see that as an important event. Suddenly, that’s changed.

It is true that with new client-side technologies, the page view is no longer the holiest of holy metrics anymore (personally I’ve always liked to see increases sessions and in “page views per unique visitor”). But the page view is far from dead. Rather the page view is evolving to become a type of “major” event in the Web 2.0 experience.

Now before I go on, let’s remember that I don’t take the word “event” lightly. Everything that happens on a web site is an event. You click, it’s an event. You fill in your name, that’s an event. Measuring events is the heart of web analytics – and with Rich Internet, that event becomes harder to measure.

So, let’s think of the page view as a “major” event. After all, for RSS consumers, an RSS “feed request” is just as important as a page view. The feed request is another “major event” providing our information-hungry audience with the content they need. In this “Event” paradigm, technologies like AJAX and rich media create “minor events” subordinate to the page view. These minor events could conceivably engage our visitors for longer durations (for example, the minor event of “play” on rich media video), thus maximizing opportunities for generating profitable revenue from a visit. And for maximizing our potential for analysis.

I’m hypothesizing that page views are major events in Web 2.0 and provide the context for understanding “minor events” created from widgets or AJAX or Flash or whatever.

In other words, in Web 2.0, it could be said: the page view is dead, long live the page view!

Coming tomorrow: Part II, measuring rich applications using Google Analytics.
And the next day: Part III, Part III, measuring RIA with Unica

Everyone knows that there aren’t a lot of web analysts out there, so the idea of having to write a great cover letter to land a job might seem ridiculous. On the other hand, since there aren’t a lot of web analysts out there, we want to find some great people and train them. One of our customers did that, I am so jealous of him; his analyst is incredible, with just the “teach it to me” attitude I look for.

But to cut to the chase - I am reading cover letters and resumes all the time. And, as you might guess, I write job descriptions just like I blog. Same tone. That’s why I am awed at the stilted prose that comes back to me, mostly from the intern wannabes. Like this: “I am confident my experience, educational background and career goals will be an asset to your organization in achieving its objectives.” The writers, especially the young ones, try so hard to act professional that it truly backfires on them, and they just end up looking ridiculous. Or perhaps just as bad, they look identical to the rest. (How do you sort out which of the many people who are sure will be assets to your organization will actually be assets?)

However, I got one cover letter that was just so great, I had to share it. This particular job description describes a for-credit summer internship where the student doesn’t need to already have an analytics background (who does?). You should know that in the job description, I wrote, “In your cover letter, please explain why you love analytics and point to something in your background that makes it clear what a ‘measurable marketing person’ you are.” So here is what the student wrote:

A personality trait of mine that I think would suit this job is my habit of analyzing everything. I like to analyze things for fun and I analyze everyday life without a choice. I usually don’t like to make a decision about anything unless I have every detail I need and I can weigh out my options properly. When I was a kid I used to read the stock market section of the newspaper with my dad and compare his mutual funds, individual stock prices, their 52 week highs, and so on. … I used to have a girlfriend that constantly complained that I over analyzed everything about our relationship. The point I am trying to get at is I pay close attention to detail and have the ability to compare and analyze information provided.

What a breath of fresh air. I hope the interview goes well. I’ll keep you posted.

Robbin Steif
LunaMetrics

Your best conversion resource may be just one person, or an enormous group of people. Perhaps you are a tiny company with an admin who answers the phone (or you answer it yourself). Perhaps you are Lands’ End, with a room the size of a football field, filled with CSRs talking to customers. Either way, you have an amazing resource that you may not have tapped.

Your customer support staff knows what keywords people use when they call, looking for a product. They know what products customers love. They know what things about your website drives customers crazy (both crazy good and crazy bad.) They understand why people can’t convert and abandon carts, preferring to pick up the phone.

Hey, I did it when I made the reservation for Starwood Hotels. I already blogged once about the problem with that shopping cart, but the really awful problem was, the cart didn’t recognize my Starwood number, which I had cut and pasted from Starwood’s email. “Oh, it always misbehaves on the weekends,” the CSR told me. Well gosh, why doesn’t her boss ask her opinion?

Not that long ago, I was working with a customer on some multivariate testing. “Why don’t you ask the customer service reps what they think needs to be fixed?” I asked. “We’re really good about being an inclusive company,” he replied (and they are, they just won an award for some kind of inclusiveness.) But after he asked them, he was suddenly snowed with ideas from the front lines.

Not only will your admin or your customer service reps have a lot of ideas (free for the taking) — they will probably love that you asked for their help. Oh sure, someone will say, “That’s your job, not mine.” But I bet that for every one person who has that attitude, ten more will be flattered that you care. Just about everyone likes to know that they make a difference.

I sure do.

Robbin Steif

This weekend, someone send me a Google Analytics Regular Expression (RegEx) question. The answer is pretty basic but interesting, and there is something to be learned about one of my favorite tools, the Epikone RegEx Tester.

Q: Hi,I’ve read most of your posts about RegEx, but I still can’t manage to find the right RegEx for one of my filters in GA.

I’d like to use a “search and replace” filter for all the pages whose URLs are either / OR /index.asp (which are in fact: www.my-domain.com and www.my-domain.com/index.asp). Basically, I’d like to have all the pages with both URLs displayed as “the page name I gave” in GA reports. This is why he wants to use the search and replace filter - to give the pages his chosen name. Robbin

I have tried several expressions on the RegEx filter tester but none of those seem to work. Note to Epikone: Notice that your tool is now elevated to “the” tester of choice. Robbin

I tried this one below, but I’m not sure that what the RegEx filter tester tells me means the filter is correct or not (I don’t fully understand how this tool works, especially for the “input string” and “result” fields). Here is the RegEx he is interested in:

^(/|/index\.asp)$

When I enter / in the input string, then click submit, the displayed result is Match: /,/

When I enter /index.asp in the input string, then click submit, the displayed result is Match: /index.asp,/index.asp

I don’t know what this result does mean exactly.

Could you tell me if this RegEx (^(/|/index\.asp)$) is correct regarding what I’m after, or if it’s wrong and then could you suggest me a working one ?

And here is my answer:

Robbin: Why don’t you first change your default page to be just index.asp. You can do this in settings > edit > then edit again. Telling GA that your default page is index.asp will stop you from getting a page like this / . This will help you with the search and replace AND help you read your analytics more easily.Then you can do it the simpleton’s way: ^/index\.asp (You really don’t need the dollar sign unless you have urls that end aspx, for example.)

I think if I were wanting to keep both / and /index.asp (a bad idea), my regex would be ^(/index\.asp)|/

It is really the same as yours, just a little simpler and easier to read.

The reason that the Epikone RegEx tester acts the way it does when you write it with parenthesis is that parenthesis tell GA, “I’ve created a variable.” And here, you can read what Justin the Man said about their RegEx tester and creating variables, I found this in old email from him:

Justin’s email: “Why our reg ex tester behaves the way it does. Our tester is pretty smart. If your expression matches the input string, then the tester will return the word ‘Match’ along with the part of the string that the expression matched. Now, if you are using parenthesis to store some part of the expression in a variable, the tool will return the value stored in the variable in addition to the part of the string that the reg ex matches.”

There is at least one other way to do this, too. You could go into the part of the code that reads urchinTracker(), on the homepage and make it urchinTracker(’homepage’).

In the process of writing this, I found that there is a whole piece on the Epikone blog about how to interpret their results.

Robbin

After I saw this Wall Street Journal article, I decided it was time to find out what web analytics packages all these US presidential candidates and non-candidate were using. (Apologies to non-US readers.) I just used the candidates that were in the center column of the WSJ article, so that I didn’t have to make decisions about who is really running and what order to put them in.

On the red side:

John McCain: No pagetagging WA
Tom Tancredo: No pagetagging WA
Rudy Guiliani: Google Analytics
Mitt Romney: SiteCatalyst

On the blue side:

Hillary Clinton: Google Analytics
Barack Obama: Google Analytics
John Edwards: Google Analytics
Dennis Kucinich: No pagetagging WA
Joe Biden: No pagetagging WA

Joe Biden gets really low marks for having a splash page. (If I hear one more customer say, “But they can click past it,” I am going to be sick.) Rudy gets low marks for requiring too many fields in the email sign up (and who ever heard of a horizontal email signup?) He also wins the “hardest to find his navigation” award. Obama wins the “busiest web site” award, although he is the only person pushing social media, besides John Edwards. (Edwards has a feed on his site but Obama doesn’t on his. That I could find.) Hillary’s “en espanol” is very nice, and I do like her homepage (I didn’t go past homepages. Too much time for no money.) I couldn’t figure out why her GA was in the head if she wasn’t doing anything interesting on the page. I thought it was very nice that John McCain had different sized typefaces on his site, for everyone who doesn’t know that you can change your type in your browser. It didn’t help change the size of his tiny, thin navigation, since it is a picture.

I went out of my way not to show my own colors on this post. Apologies if I slammed your candidate, I tried to slam them equally. And speaking of slamming — while I can pick on little things, I was surprised at what a good job they did of making their specific values come through. Whether you like those values or not, of course.

Robbin Steif

Shopping carts should make customers feel secure about more than just their credit cards. One of the jobs of a shopping cart is to make the customer feel that he is actually paying for the product he thinks he selected.

I continually have this same problem (i.e. website-induced doubt) with shopping carts — either they don’t tell me what I am buying (so I wonder, “Gee, did I click the right button?”) or they give me just enough extraneous information to put some doubt into my mind.

For example, about a month ago, I got the Quicken 2007 upgrade in the mail. It was time to upgrade, and so I started to. But when I got to the last screen, I got this screenshot:

I probably would have been okay with the “unlock” of Quicken 2007, if it weren’t for the free download they threw in of Quicken Willmaker. As soon as they called Willmaker a download, I knew that the other — the one I really cared about — wasn’t a download. In fact, only when I started writing about it that day did I figure out that I was only getting an “unlock” because I already had the software in my hands. I had to think too hard — they needed to call it an “unlock code for your software upgrade” or something more descriptive.

Here, this one is even worse. I was making my registration at the hotel for the Emetrics Summit. It looks like a gorgeous hotel on Nob Hill, so I really wanted to stay there. I just didn’t want to spent $900. So I’m going to share a room with someone, to cut costs. But, when I got to the last screen, I was told that I would pay $40 per extra person per night. Eventually, I made my reservation the old fashioned way, and the customer service rep told me that the extra person charge applied to rooms with three or more people. So either the hotel needed to remove that information, or make it clear that the information only applied to rooms with 3+ people.

Robbin Steif
LunaMetrics

My company, LunaMetrics, became a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant (GAAC) last week. When I told the news to Jim Sterne, he wrote back something like, “Is that the sound of your phone ringing off the hook?” Which pretty much sums up the situation.

So it seems only appropriate that I talk about one of my favorite topics tonight (and soon it will be, this morning): Google Sprawl. (Stephen Colbert, I just want you to know that this is MY Word.) Google Sprawl is when you have way too many Google Accounts, and they are all intertwined. This happens a) because you started with Analytics back when it was hard to get an account. Now, you are measuring your customers using profiles on your own account instead of on their accounts. Then, you let one of those customers invite you into his AdWords using that email account. Oh what a mess. b) Google Sprawl also happens when your customers have a My Client Center (MCC) on Google AdWords and they invite you in to their Client Center before you get one of your own. Then, you take the test to become an AdWords professional using that Client Center (all the while thinking, “I don’t remember thinking ahead and setting this up!”) Suddenly, you are stuck with the task of kicking one of your best customers off of her own account. (”You can still get at the data,” and “MCC is really for consultants” don’t feel like great excuses when confronting that kind of task.) c) It happens when you stupidly tell Google to put your Website Optimizer in your MCC (it doesn’t work there). d) It happens when the customer invites you into their AdWords using one email name, but you, unfortunately, change the email address you want to use. Which may make it hard to access their Website Optimizer.

So take it from someone who has made every Google Sprawl mistake in the book. There is an easy way, three-step way around this all if you plan it out. Step #1. Use one, not-very-well-known email account and put all your own Analytics, AdWords and Website Optimizer under that account. #2) Use your well-known email name to create a My Customer Center (MCC) where you can invite customers in and access both their Analytics and their AdWords. Step #3) When your customer gets Website Optimizer, always use his account instead of your own, because then you can both look at the data. But you won’t be able to use your MCC (see Google Sprawl Mistake C above), so go create another gmail account, like customername@gmail.com, and get a “hard” addition to their account. The better to access WO.

Robbin Steif
LunaMetrics

I loved Eric Peterson’s recent excellent post about the gradual building of context, but disagreed with his conclusions. I worked with him on the phone to discuss the issues and then tried to write something here. However, it required too much background for any of this blog’s readers who might not already be following what he writes about.

So, I hope you will read my guest post on Eric’s blog. (We even named a metric in my honor…)

Robbin Steif