The Power Of Google Analytics

It has been approximately three weeks since Google announced their Analytics service. I connected Analytics probes to my blog page as soon as I got the message (I think this was a Reuters announcement on a stock - screening site). The probe itself is a tiny Javascript that lets Google gather traffic statistics on the page where it resides. And since the early days of the service I watched my fellow readers visiting my site. It is amazing how much information is available. First, I know where you come from. So far most of the audience is in the United States and in Poland (locations whre I have realtives and friends, who spread the word). But I also have visitors from Australia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Iceland.
I still cannot understand why there are no visits from Canada (anybody has friends over there? - ask them to click here and we will see...). Then I know the ratio of new versus returning visitors. The trend is good so far, since the blog is gaining in popularity and new faces show up every day.
And I know much more about you! Technicals like operating systems, browser make and model (IE stil rulez), screen resolution, connection type (dialup / dsl / corporate), your Internet provider (Comcast leads the pack). I know how much time you spend on the pages, where you start wnd where you leave, and even where you come from (ie. the page you browsed just before going to the Headworx). Are you afraid? Do not be... This is all the information any browser submits to a web server, and by knowing your public IP address, your whereabouts can be determined. The power of Google helps here, since they keep a database of Internet providers around the world and IP address ranges they are assigned. And based on that they can plot your position on the map.
As you imagine a service like that helps tune your site a lot. When you know your audience and its habbits, you can deliver more what they like. And if your web site sells something (that is mostly the case), you can simply sell more by tuning the pages accordingly.
Now you may wonder what Google gets from this (especially that Analytics is free). Hey, haven't you read the Meta Brain story? They have to eat information to grow. And of course now they have all the information I described above. About any site and page that inserts Analytics probe in the body. This is enormous value of information (if you have brains to process it of course). One of derived values from Analytics probes is more precise ad targeting. Meaning more value for advertisers and less hassle for users. And more value for shareholders of course. The power of information, the power of knowledge...
As a side note for investors, I looked at the Analytics user interface. Its rich graphs are rendered using Macromedia (MACR) Flash. Recently I have noticed, Google Video is Flash-based as well. So is Adobe (ADBE), just closing the Macromedia acquisition, becoming a "Google / IPTV" investment target to watch? They are present on every platform, from PCs to MACs to even Qualcomm's mobile phone chipsets. And it looks like Flash becomes de facto standard for rich multimedia delivery over the Web. If Google bets on them, shouldn't we?