Microsoft ditches Web analytics effort

This one flew under my radar, but Microsoft announced earlier this month that it is scrapping an effort to develop a general purpose Web analytics program.

In a blog posting, Microsoft said it is closing the beta of Microsoft AdCenter Analytics.

"The insights you've contributed through your feedback and your use of the tool have served an invaluable purpose in shaping Microsoft's future in this space," Microsoft said in the March 12 blog posting. "You've helped us work towards making an informed decision about building a general Web analytics solution, and despite the end of life plan, the beta was very much a success. It enabled us to confidently determine that we can be of most value to advertisers and publishers by offering a tailored solution that meets more specialized needs."

Those already in the beta will be able to continue using the tool until December 31.

"We recommend that you use the coming months to evaluate your Web analytics needs and leverage that information to conduct a search for an alternative Web analytics solution," Microsoft said. The software maker has posted a list of alternatives that includes Google Analytics, Yahoo Web Analytics, and Omniture.

Although Microsoft announced layoffs and other cost cuts in January, the company has axed relatively few products. Among the products it has scrapped in recent months are Windows Live OneCare and PerformancePoint Server, a business intelligence product.

Are there any other products that have been cut that I should know about? If so, drop me a line.

[fneedog]

Microsoft is the dominant player in the computer industry due to illegal restraint of trade business practices put in place at the company's birth. They have been tried and convicted of this civil crime in several jurisdictions. They have agreed to pay enormous financial penalties and submit to independent monitoring in order to be compliant with settlement terms. At no time in the company's history have they developed (in house) a legit, profitable product that stands on its own merit and succeeded because of marketplace demand.

The only thing MS considers is ship date and share price in any business decision. In their view, that is the only thing that matters.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Thank you for your comment, but did you have something to say about the actual story being reported here instead of just tired old rheotoric?

[kojacked]

That's a lot of baggage you're carrying around there fneedog...

[rapier1]

Uhhh... yeah. That's an interesting view of reality you have there.

[screamapillar]

Fneedog, while I disagree with your remark regarding MS making anything legit and profitable that stands on its own... I do agree that they are anti-competitive bullies. However, my question to you is, do you really think their competitors are any different? These are companies, the ship date and share price in any business direction is their job to care about. When people start understanding that corporations are not caring friendly people who want to give everyone hugs then perhaps we'll have some more objective consumers - and lets all not be so arrogant to think that in their eyes we are anything more than an economic unit with certain level of consuming capacity for them to direct marketing to. So I implore you, if you hate M$ for such ideological reasons, then by all means, vote with your wallet and do not purchase their products. But please consider that it means you will not be able to post on CNET anymore as you'll be hard pressed to find competitors that aren't just as awful.

[TheOracle1]

You should be medicated. If Microsoft would have never came around you would be still sitting front of ASCII terminals hooked to a mainframe and paying an arm and a leg to IBM.

[hassan14_pk]

performance point hasnt been scrapped infact it has been decided to be bundled into sharepoint server as performance point services.

[t8]

You forgot to mention Vista.
It is being outmoded in favour of Bloat 7 as it wasn't a successful product.

[Mr. Dee]

Windows Vista and 7 are bloatware? Lets see what Linux distributions bundle:

- 2 Desktop Graphical environments KDE and Gnome
- An office productivity suite named Open Office.org
- Photo Management Tool F-Spot
- Tonnes of useless games
- Useless 3D effects that only use up resources

And you seriously call Windows bloated. Windows Vista by the way is on over 200 million systems world wide.

[t8]

@ above.

Yes it is bloated and unnecessary.

IE is twice the download and twice as slow.Media Player is a big fat waste of time.
The only thing that is fast is getting viruses.

[Commander_Spock]

Re: "Microsoft ditches Web analytics effort"!!!

Does this auger well for 90% plus market share without that looooooooooo.............ng awaited "fresh brew" of Lotus Kona???

[t8]

OS2 Wart rides again.
Ha ha ha. IBM OS2 and Lotus to rule them all.
OK, to rule you.

[Commander_Spock]

But, come to think about it really, really hard "t8"; 90 % plus "Code-Base OS/2" Standardized Data to be analyzed is 90 % plus Standardized "Code-Base OS/2" Data to be analyzed; so, which is incidental to which??? and, remember that "there can be nothing new under the sun"!

[t8]

Microsoft may have reasoned that their product was second rate compared with Google Analytics and decided to ditch their attempt as it may have had the same effect as the Zunes vs iPods debacle which in hindsight has given them more grief than anything else.

[Commander_Spock]

Why did CNET NEWS find it necessary to move this very article about 90 % plus "Microsoft (ditching its) Web analytics effort" from its opening page at a time when the Obama Administration is attempting to do its best to get rid of the "toxic assets" at the banks. Imagine the banks working with defaulters "collaboratively" (via the web) to address the issues that have apparently gotten the U. S. economy (and those of countries around the world) where they are!!!

"Mission Accomplished" - Again!

"Jobs-Baby- Jobs"!