Recently Google has made an announcement that they will be shutting down the Website Optimizer free service and integrating it back into Google Analytics. Instead of being called website optimizer its now going to be called Content Experiments.
With this change Google has also changed some of the features that will be available, the interface is remarkably similar though. The major changes are around the types of experiments that you can run. Website Optimizer allowed you to run A/B experiments and Multivariate experiments. Content Experiments does not support Multivariate experiments, it supports purely A/B experiments.
Another interesting change to note is that with the integration to Google Analytics you no longer need to set conversion pages, you choose one of your pre-set goals as the conversion page. This means instead of having to place multiple code snippets on your pages you can now just place one extra snippet. The streamlining of this should allow more users to use it, as many users have complained about the amount of code changes required.
One of the great things with the change to Content Experiments is Google has made the process of setting up a test a lot easier. It seems that one of the major reasons for the change was to increase usage of the tool. The interface has received an upgrade and the flow of creating a test has been simplified.
As part of this Google Analytics product update, Google has also officially released it’s Social Reports. Social reports allow you to see the content you’ve published, the conversations it’s sparked and the trackbacks you’ve received. This is a significant update and will allows business owners like you to see the wider community impact your content is making.
These latest two updates, Content Experiments and Social Reports are just the start of other much anticipated updates expected to be released this year. As Google tries to expand it’s user base, engage more visitors and cement it’s position in the market. Over the last few years with the arrival of Facebook on the scene Google has been quickly positioning itself to extend it’s services and it’s reach.
These two updates continue to help Google achieve its goal of remaining the number one search engine. One thing to look out for over the coming months is an update to Google Docs, as they recently acquired a similar service with greater features.
The question being asked around the web right now is, What’s Next For Google?
Let us know what you think below in the comments!
