WebTrends Live promises real-time website analysis by tracking performance in the browser, as users go through a site, instead of analyzing logs after the fact. The service also gathers data on plug-ins, product purchases, screen size, and more.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Associate Editor [April 25, 2001]

NetIQ, which recently merged with WebTrends, announced that its web-delivered site performance analysis service, called WebTrends Live, has been endorsed and improved by a partnership with Akamai.

Akamai combines WebTrends Live and Akamai technology into Akamai SiteWise, part of its I AM AKAMAI service:

Akamai's SiteWise service will be a part of EdgeSuite, which will enable companies to build and deliver high-performance websites, monitor their performance, and target specific locations.

Akamai, a content delivery leader, is also providing technology to NetIQ. NetIQ will use Akamai's EdgeScape geo-location database to provide its customers with more detailed geographic and network performance information about their Web visitors.

WebTrends will also employ Akamai's FreeFlow content delivery service to place WebTrends Live data geographically closer to users.

How it works
Webmasters running sites that will use WebTrends Live simply insert some Javascript into static HTML pages or the site's database, and WebTrends Live collects stats in real time, as the user is browsing a site.

Said Jeff Seacrist, product line manager, "larger ISPs and webhosts have many logs and geographically dispersed log files. WebTrends Live performs data collection at the browser, so the stats for a site are gathered in one place even if there are mirrors or multiple hosting companies."

The site will send data to a large NOC, currently based in Portland, Ore. The NOC will analyze the data. "It should be available in minutes," said Seacrist, "and users, especially those running e-commerce sites, will view reports multiple times each day."

The NOC can generate historical reports in a day, month, or year view.

Small businesses with only a few employees managing many sites might find it difficult to install the Javascript in static HTML pages. (Of course, if you use a server-side include, you can instantly add the Javascript to every page.)

Many users prefer to buy software. Seacrist said, "Software is still a very comfortable and common model that customers are familiar with. It really depends on how much work you want to go through in maintaining your own data versus letting someone else do it for you."

There is some difference between the stats gathered by each. For example, if a user started to load a page and hit the "Stop" button before the WebTrends Live Javascript loaded, the log analysis software would count that as a hit, while WebTrends live would not. And if cookies are turned off, WebTrends Live counts each page view as a distinct user, while the software can still track the user.

On the other hand, WebTrends Live can gather data stored in the browser that is not stored in the log file, such as platform, time zone, browser, screen size, plugins, products purchased, and amount of money spent (credit cards are not collected by WebTrends Live). This data will be especially useful to builders of e-commerce sites.

There is a detailed privacy policy here. The most important promise is that WebTrends Live will not gather information about individual users (will not build a database of user profiles).

The data that WebTrends Live gathers should be sufficient to allow webmasters to track the performance of distributed and complex sites as well as of websites composed of static HTML pages, and should enable ISPs to offer customers more detailed data about website performance, especially e-commerce performance.

Availability and pricing
WebTrends Live is priced according to total page views analyzed, with a volume discount.

The EdgeSuite product is a menu of services priced à la carte, according to services used.

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