…promoting data democracy, tools and metrics and methodologies that were not easily available to all are now in easy reach

That’s one of the most interesting and exciting elements to GA. I remember reading an article about analytics packages in .Net magazine a couple of years ago and any packages with a reasonable level of data cost rather more than a hobby site is worth, even a fairly large hobby site. GA enables anyone to get hold of detailed data for their sites that’s the same level as huge eCommerce companies can afford.

Whether people know what to do with that data is another thing entirely, but at least it’s available. As an analyst by day, I appreciated being able to grab much more useful information than I’ve ever had before.

Thanks for the detailed review here of the GA tool and what you found meaningful.