Google breaks Analytics

Not being content with breaking the Internet over the weekend, it seems those Google guys are now focusing their attentions on destroying analytics software.

Sitepoint are reporting that Google are currently experimenting with AJAX search results in some parts of the US, and by changing their search engine queries from /search?= to /search?#= , it means no analytics tool can tell who searched for what to get to your page.

The reason Google’s AJAX search breaks this is that browsers don’t send any information after the # hash mark. This isn’t something that analytics packages can create a workaround for — the only way to change it would be to rewrite at the browser level — and it affects log based analytics software the same as it does JavaScript based.

Some are expectng Google to create a workaround so search results only return data to their own Analytics, effectively destroying the rest of the analytics market in one sweep.

Search blogger Peter Da Vanzo … suggests that Google might be gearing up to lock web site owners into Google Analytics if they want complete search referral information. He reminds us that Google has done something similar once before.

Find out more about it at Sitepoint