In a very strategic move, Yahoo has announced officially on April 9^th that they have a confirmed agreement with Indextools to acquire their web analytics software. More often known as IndexTools due to its branding, its formal name is Tensa. This move should put Yahoo’s search engine marketing offerings in a more preferable position by third party marketers and advertisers. The deal is set to close by the end of 2008’s second quarter.

Over the years, many marketers have preferred to utilize Google for their Search Engine Marketing tools. Google has investing a tremendous amount of resources to develop sophisticated tools and reporting capabilities which allow marketers the opportunity to make intelligent marketing decisions. In addition to refining and creating analytics technology, Google has gone a step further in making this technology free to its customers and has been offering them for quite a while. Yahoo’s analytics capabilities have paled in comparison to Google. By Yahoo taking steps in purchasing IndexTool’s analytics software the Search Engine is now becoming a more attractive channel for marketers to pursue. Bassel Ojjeh of Yahoo’s Strategic Data group has the following to say about the acquisition “We expect that the Indextools’ technology platform will provide our customers the opportunity to more quickly uncover and act on these insights, enhancing Yahoo’s status as a partner choice in online marketing and the must buy for the world’s advertisers.”

We should see the integration of this platform over the next few months. The first wave of implementation will likely benefit small to midsize businesses currently marketing in Yahoo. Following the first phase, they anticipate to add additional tools that will allow advertisers to monitor campaign activity and make campaign optimization more efficient and seamless.

So what is the benefit to Yahoo in acquiring IndexTools? Well, IndexTool’s focus has been concentrated on developing a “large base of customers by delivering a reliable, scalable and comprehensive platform for monitoring and analyzing sophisticated marketing campaigns,” says Marton Szoke, Managing Director of Tensa in a Business Wire press release. The Yahoo press release goes on to state, “With IndexTools Web Analytics and Bid Management, businesses gain accurate, insightful and timely intelligence about the effectiveness of their online marketing.” Thinking forward, the propensity of benefits is yet to be realized. I will be watching closely and taking full advantage of the suite of tools as they become available.

This acquisition should boost Yahoo’s overall market presence, and hopefully its market share. As an internet marketer myself, I have been wishfully thinking Yahoo would develop or acquire a robust analytics package that could be utilized in optimizing campaigns, bid management and for comparison analysis with Google Analytics. Finally, that day has come.

After five months of getting used to the new analytics interface, Google figured it was time to shake things up again. The following three changes are on the horizon:

Site Search - Expanding upon current Site Search capabilities, we will now be able to get data on keywords, categories, and products across time and user segments.

Event Tracking – With this addition, you will now be able to tag and track Flash and Ajax events. I can tell you from experience how difficult it is to really track traffic from Flash sites.

Tagless Outbound Link Tacking – This feature will allow for users to track their exit links (links that visitors clicked on that take them to another website).

Although these features will start in beta, many in the industry see this as a pioneer move for Google to set themselves apart from their competitors, making their’s the metric tool of choice. This just goes to show how vital it is to incorporate Analytics into your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Campaigns. With the data this program can provide, there is no end to the value it can bring with your SEM efforts!

The secret is out: Microsoft is developing an analytics tool for Adcenter that will compete directly with Google Analytics. The information was leaked a few days ago by Dave Naylor, who learned of the analytics tool (codenamed “Gatineau”) at a Microsoft briefing in London. Somehow he got a hold of some screen shots and published them on his blog. This prompted a blog response from Ian Thomas, a Microsoft rep involved in Gatineau’s development and transition to the market. According to Thomas, Microsoft was about to make a public announcement about the tool when the leak occurred.

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