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I can't really see how google can easily pass the search query to Google Analytics. GA requires atomic data to perform all this analysis and custom segmentation
by raquo 18y ago
I can't really see how google can easily pass the search query to Google Analytics. GA requires atomic data to perform all this analysis and custom segmentation magic.
The only way I see is using a cookie (with a user id) on the google.com domain, which ga.js must interpret in backend on every request. But this means that ga.js will have to be dynamically generated, rather than being a simple static file (and yes, it won't be cached by users visiting your site, making tracking even slower). I don't think google wants this additional load every time anyone loads some GA-enabled page on the web. Besides, ga.js is currently hosted on google-analytics.com, not google.com, so all users will need to upgrade to a new tracking script. And it will not be possible to self-host the script anymore.
Anyway, this does not sound like anything reasonable to me. I hope it won't be implemented - it would destroy an entire industry, and not a redundant one.
- schammy 18y agoWhen you click a link from a google SERP, it goes through a redirect script. They could easily be using that to feed Google Analytics.
- raquo 18y agoYes, but in that case other web analytics packages will also have access to referrer that contains the search query and there is no problem. I wasn't clear enough, sorry - I was concerned with how Google could be able to share the search query _only_ with GA but not other analytics tools, because it is clear that Google will not sacrifice GA usefulness to some ajax SERPs.
- dshah 18y agoI might be missing something, but I think Google can easily modify their redirect script to store the data they want (for use by Google Analytics) and then strip that data out before it hits the target URL.
- sam_in_nyc 18y agoga.js can be static, and can read cookies. You go to Google and do a search, Google stores your search sessions on the server, and assigns you some unique ID. If you click on a search result, google logs that in your session. You visit site with Google Analytics. ga.js reads the Google.com cookie to get your session ID in some clever way (perhaps embedding an invisible iframe in the Google.com domain, which can read the Google.com search cookie). Now, Google Analytics knows that you're the same person who just clicked on that search result .2 seconds ago... a match in my book. They could also tell you things like "visitors to your site also search for XXX" but that's clearly a violation of privacy. They get this data, but we don't.