WASP v1.21 released

WASP v1.21 is awaiting approval on addons.mozilla.org but is already available from WebAnalyticsSolutionProfiler.com.

This month also mark an important milestone. On March 5th, 2009, the Mozilla addons stats was showing WASP being used by 10,000 people!

What's new

This release includes a number of enhancements and bug fixes:

• Omniture SiteCatalyst code version check, Report Suite and support for mobile version of SiteCatalyst
  
• WASP for Analyst now shows a breakdown of Google Analytics cookie values
• WASP Market Research smarter URL validation & faster scanning
  
• Added detection of DART Spotlight/Floodlight, Yieldmanager, Yahoo! Ad, InsightExpress, Quigo, Coremetrics SurfAid and older versions of Predicta
  
• WASP Pro now include a crawl option to "Log Dublin Core meta data" (DCMI)
• Online help is now available (still being written)
• WASP for Analyst sidebar - fixed long running code under specific conditions
• WASP Pro crawler - fixed data export when HBX and SiteCatalyst were on the same page
  
• Anomymous usage info now opt-in (instead of opt-out) and shown in license agreement

As always, your feedback and suggestions are more than welcome! Please take 2 minutes to submit a review at addons.mozilla.org.

See you at eMetrics

I will be moderating a round table discussion about "How Trustworthy is your Data/Data Quality from Web Analytics Tools" at eMetrics Toronto, March 29-April 1st. The round table discussion is limited to 10 people, sorry, no vendors, and the goal is to exchange ideas and share experience related to the accuracy of web analytics data and how to do quality assurance.

About a month later, I will be at eMetrics San Jose (May 4-7) were on the "The Softer Side of Metrics - Is it Hot in Here or is it Just Me?" panel with Peterson and Jonathan Levitt. Jonathan will talk about 4Q and I will cover WASP.

On both occasions I will also present the concept of "Web Analytics Maturity Model" I have developed.

Get WASP v1.21 update now!

(Don't forget! "Stéphane Hamel for WAA Board of Director!")

Stéphane Hamel for Web Analytics Association BoD!

Beyond stats, web sites and businesses, there are people. After all, some things don't change that much even after thousands of years. We still want to get around the campfire and listen to the sage, help the apprentice, be part of the group and make our mark. Maybe that's why, in essence, I'm running for the Web Analytics Association Board of Director.

Why I'm running for the WAA Board of Director

The Web Analytics Association provides quality education, develop standards and best practices, conduct research and advocate for issues that advance the industry. Behind those objectives there are thousands of members, some new to the industry, some more experienced. Just people like you and me who seek to help their employer or clients make more enlightened decisions, share with fellow WAA members, learn and advance their career in a fast paced and exciting field that take its roots from a vast number of professional expertise: marketing, statistics, web development, management, communication, design, usability just to name a few.

The voting period for the WAA 2009 Board of Directors election is now open. Votes will be accepted from now until 23:59 GMT (7:59 PM ET, 4:59 PM PT) on Friday, April 10, 2009.

Credit where credit is due!

I've been a member of the WAA since 2005, and from the get go, I felt something similar to my early days in the Web: collaboration and sharing, excitement, passion, vision, innovation in a fast paced industry where I could grow, learn, and leverage my experience and expertise. When I realized Jim Sterne was behind the WAA and eMetrics, I knew I wanted to be part of it. I had met Jim many, many years ago, in the days of the Internet World Conference, long before the Internet Bubble Burst and the current economic downturn. He was an inspiration: motivating, great speaker, very open to share and collaborate. He was very knowledgable about the Web and marketing and already pushing for measurement and accountability.

Since then I met so many great people it would be too long to list, be it Bryan Eisenberg, Brian Clifton, Avinash Kaushik, Bill Gassman, Joseph Carrabis, John Lovett, Gary Angel, Jim Novo, Bob Page, Judah Phillips and a slew of consultants, practitionners and vendors. Now, look at the profile of the people running for the WAA BoD: Anil Batra, René Deschamps Otamendi, Daniel Waisberg, Rachel Scotto, Jonathan Levitt, Matt Langie, Nicolas Babin. I personally met all of them through the WAA and eMetrics, and the choice is very hard: great people who love what they are doing and have a passion for it.

Pay it forward

In essence, "pay it forward" is how I see my implication in the field. That's why I love speaking at eMetrics, being a tutor for the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics, why I'm blogging, Twittering and being very active on the Yahoo! Web Analytics Forum. It's why I've been organizing Web Analytics Wednesdays for over two years. It's also why I have developed the Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP): share my expertise and foster collaboration through the networking and great feedback I'm receiving out of it.

I had to chose a category for the election process. Am I a consultant, a vendor or a maybe more on the academic/research side? In face of the other great people in the consulting category, I don't know what the outcome will be, but the adventure is worth it, and I hope to get your vote!

Percute: Quebec city startup looking for talent

I've known Stéphane Guérin since our days in the same MBA class. He is a very bright guy who developed a pretty amazing web analytics platform. Yes, even facing Google Analytics and the big players, there are still very innovative startups who can offer unique compeling values. Percute also offers web analytics consulting. You should definitely check it out at percute.com (in French). Pretty cool name also!

The job

In their own term, they are looking for:

• A scientific mind with strong communication skills OR
• A communicator with strong scientific abilities

Communication

Become a community advocate for web analytics, write case studies, blog posts, become a voice of the industry, promote web analytics, best practices and the services offered by Percute Technologies.

Web analytics

The scientific side of things. Work with clients as an ebusiness consultant. Understand their needs, offer strong innovative and problem resolution skills.Knowledge of web analytics isn't as important as the willingness to learn and grow in the field of web analytics.

Percute is looking for a dynamic person willing to work for a small company located in the very nice city of Québec. Contact Percute for more info.

Web Analytics Wednesday - March 25th, Montreal

At last! The next Web Analytics Wednesdays is coming up to Montreal!

Event Details

Date:	Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Time:	5:00 pm - 7:00 pm and more
Place:	L'Amère à boire, a nice little micro brewery
Address:	2049 St-Denis, Montréal, 514-397-7737
RSVP:	Register online
Sponsor:	immeria

Come for the beer & tapas, meet super cool people and advance your career!

17:00h: Welcome and networking, beer & tapas!
17:30h: Official WASP launch! Demo and get a chance to win a free WASP for Analyst license!
18:00h: News from the field
18:30h: Networking...

WASP case study: incomplete page HTML

Symptom:

The WASP crawler report shows several pages from a site with "None" as the solution name. However, these pages are actually tagged, and Google Analytics reports the data correctly.

In Firefox itself, the WASP status icon and sidebar show the pages as tagged with Google Analytics, but again the crawler reports "None" for the same pages.

Diagnostic:

When WASP crawl reports problems with tags on some pages, it indicates a potential issue that requires further investigation. Even if the page appears to be loading correctly at first glance, we need to seek for a plausible reason why WASP could have been unable to capture the tags only on some pages while others are being reported fine.

Resolution:

When loading some of the pages being reported in error, I noticed the page loading indicator shown in the status bar was taking a slightly longer time than usual even if the page itself appeared to be loading correctly. Also, the WASP status bar was effectively showing that Google Analytics was present. A simple "View Source" revealed something quite interesting: the HTML for the page is incomplete and stops right after the GA tags.

Conclusion:

This issue is a perfect demonstration of how a page might appear to be loading correctly from the user perspective, but still technically be in error. This seemingly minor issue does, in fact, have other side effects since a page that is not well formed HTML page can definitely impact your SEO.

Job: TD Insurance Web Analytics Expert (Montreal)

The economy isn't bad for all fields of expertise. Here's another job in the web analytics business, in Montréal!

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Are you an expert in Web analytics? Move your career forward with TD Insurance! At TD Insurance, a leading insurer on the Web, we are looking for people with 3-5 years of experience in Web analytics to fill a new position and join the best insurance team on the Web in North America.

The person in this position will play a defining role in the orientation of future Web projects. He or she will study and interpret data from different sources on our websites. Responsibilities include analyzing and converting data, and making concrete recommendations to key players.

Responsibilities

• Identify successes, trends and areas of improvement by using web analytic data. Translate analysis into actionable recommendations.
• Set in place activities (dashboards) to monitor for anomalies; report the anomalies when present and communicate recommendations to resolve it
• Develop testing plan and platform for AB and Multi-variant testing and then work with project leaders to define, design, execute, analyze, results.
• Participate in site re-designs and quoting engines enhancements as a measurements expert, identifying reporting requirements, monitoring the implementation process and evaluating post-launch reporting.
• Measure and understand customer lifecycle and usage patterns in order to understand online client behaviour for better targeting and focus on projects on areas with the greatest profitability impact
• Evaluate profitability of the Web Sales Optimization projects to support business cases
• Assist in setting project Key Performance Indicators (KPI) objectives
• After project implementation, evaluate degree of success based on project objectives
• Ensure that the tracking structure continuously evolves to meet the web business needs and are adequate to measure the success of projects
• Build confidence in data sources in order to ensure data integrity and reliability by developing processes and procedures.
• Compile weekly and monthly metric reports from various data sources in order to see the evolution of periodic reports for historical and analysis purposes
• Generate ad-hoc request (reports/data extracts) into insightful analysis and perform recommendations.

Skills and key competencies

• Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, Information Technology or any other related analytical field
• Experience with Omniture’s suite or similar and current analytics programs.
• Familiarity with SAS and SQL and advanced MS Excel skills
• Experience running complex analyses and developing complex reports
• 3-5 years of experience in Web sites analytics
• Superior analytical skills and thinking, ability to develop creative solutions
• Strong communicator, multi-tasker, customer-focused, business minded
• Ability to work in a dynamic environment
• Detailed driven and hands-on approach
• Excellent in problem solving skills with an ability to provide solutions
• Fluent in both French and English
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• A strong understanding of Insurance
• Excellent Communication Skills written and spoken, French and English

This permanent position comes with a host of benefits, including insurance, bonuses, discounts on financial products, pension plan, etc.

If you think you have the expertise required and are looking for a stimulating work environment where discussion, commitment and pay equity are part of the package, please send your résumé and contact info to Jean-François Beaulieu [jean-francois(dot)beaulieu(at)TDInsurance(dot)com] so he can provide you with more details about this position.