firewall

At ad:tech San Francisco, Google Analytics today announced the full launch of Urchin Software, Google’s advanced – but not free – Web analytics package, aka Urchin 6. Urchin Software is the update to Urchin 5, and anyone can now download a 90-day free trial, at Urchin.com.

For the moment, Urchin is only available in English, but nine other international versions are expected to be available soon.

For search engine marketers who remember the name, Urchin formed the basis of Google Analytics, which was released in 2005. But, Google Analytics is a Google-hosted service, while Urchin is software that users install on their own servers.

This makes Urchin the better option for certain applications. You might use it if you need to:
* analyze your firewall-protected content, such as an intranet;
* review 5 years’ worth of old server log data to analyze;
* check if your site’s visitors are getting “Page Not Found” (404) errors;
* audit your site’s traffic by a third party;
* create custom reports or integrate with other tools, like a CRM system; or
* integrate your e-commerce logs directly with Urchin.

That said, Google continues to recommend Google Analytics for most users and most circumstances, as its marketing-oriented reports are more advanced than Urchin’s. You can even use Google Analytics and Urchin together at the same time and get the best of both worlds.

An Urchin license is $2,995. The license allows you to analyze traffic for up to 1000 domains, any number of load-balanced servers, and any number of log files (including access, e-commerce, cost-per-click, and other types of logs).

More information is available on the Google Analytics blog.