Multivariate Testing Moves Further Upstream

Two press releases crossed my inbox yesterday that made me smile. The first was from Clickability, a hosted Web Content Management solution and the second was from Google. The information was largely the same, announcing Google’s Website Optimizer Technology Partner program, where they’ve made their testing solution widely available to content creators using Content Management Systems (CMS). Partnering CMS providers can automate page tagging enabling more testing and easy setup.

These releases made me smile because I’ve been preaching the merits of moving testing upstream in the Web site optimization process for a while now. All too often, multivariate and A/B tests are performed as a means to identify problems and address issues, rather than a method to create better pages from the start. Interwoven was the first company to key into this potential and snatched up industry leader Optimost back in October of last year. They’re doing a great job of promoting the benefits of multivariate testing and including testing as a part of the content creation process. The caveat here is that testing should not impede progress. Even for sites that do move testing upstream, testing should start after a control page (build on best practices of course) has launched. This will establish a baseline for optimizing and ensure that sites get to market with something, rather than testing themselves into oblivion.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Tom Leung of Google Website Optimizer this afternoon who reiterated the synergies between testing and content management. We both pondered on why all content management companies don’t offer testing capabilities? When I asked about the basis for the new partner program he referenced Marqui as the company who really drove the project based on the initiative they took on integrating Website Optimizer into their own platform. They leveraged the IT Guy link to parse tags for clients and get them started with testing online advertisements. The idea snowballed and with Marqui’s initiative and Google supporting the effort, the partner program was born. Different levels of the partnership exist from simply certifying that the CMS and Website Optimizer systems are compatible and won’t break each other to automated implementations that permeate across an entire CMS solution. Down the road some partners will likely make the integration even more seamless to achieve one-click testing and optimization nirvana.

Tom agreed with the upstream concept and took it even further to state that testing shouldn’t be a big deal to set up. In fact, his vision is that testing becomes inherent to content creation and as ubiquitous as spellchecker or print preview. As with Google’s Analytics tool, Website Optimizer is free and their mission is to raise awareness of testing and make it available to the masses. The key takeaway here is that testing shouldn’t be something on your long term roadmap. The tools are here and there are increasing resources ready to help you get up and running.

Good One Google

Anyone else do a double take as they logged into a Gmail account today? They spoofed Gmail “Custom Time” allowing users to change the time of sent emails to delude recipients of the fact that you’re actually late on e-mailings. Gmail uses an e-flux capacitor to make the whole thing work. The purported functionality even makes it appear that the recipient opened the email placing fault into their hands. Brilliant! My deliverables are no longer past due!

Beta User Testimonials…

"The entire concept of 'late' no longer exists for me. That's pretty cool. Thanks Gmail!" Miriam S., Delivery girl

"I used to be an honest person; but now I don't have to be. It's just so much easier this way. I've gained a lot of productivity by not having to think about doing the 'right' thing." Todd J., Investment Banker

Nice one Google, you had me for a second there...

A Do Not Track List?

Yesterday’s New York Times article and subsequent banter regarding heightened privacy concerns over Web analytics monitoring indicated that nine groups have petitioned the FTC to implement “Do Not Track” (DNT) lists. What ever happened to deleting cookies? Wait, what about simply blocking sites from dropping a cookie with your Web browser? But I question what these nine groups are so worried about anyway. The benefits of Web analytics tracking are widely appreciated by consumers, yet the collection process gives them the creeps. What’s that…You want your cake and would like to eat it too?

For all those groups wanting DNT lists, do you also take offense when your local shopkeeper greets you by name and asks if you would like “the usual”? Or informs you that the blueberry muffins just came out of the oven and are still warm? Do you scour when your local bank teller welcomes you back by name and asks if you’re having a good day? I don’t know about you, but I visit my local bank’s Web site 10-times more frequently than I walk into a branch. If the site is able to make my life easier by anticipating my needs and providing relevant offers for me, which in turn saves me time, I say bring it on. I can still choose to ignore it if I like, but thanks for keeping it relevant. Further, I have my bank Web site, news sites, weather info and frequently visited pages all customized the way I like them. I can consume information faster and more efficiently than ever before thanks to analytics tracking. And just maybe those ads served with some semblance of my interests will alert me to something that I wasn’t aware of previously.

We live in a society where advertising is a constant droll in the background. You can tune in if you like or allow it to fade to white noise. In my experience, I tune in when something is relevant to me and that’s good for advertising. There are plenty of online habits that foster and even encourage dubious privacy practices (think Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, etc), behavioral targeting isn’t going to ruin the Internet. I posted in jest “Should I be Worried” because Google knows too much about me. But until the privacy can-o-worms is opened through some sort of “Digital Chernobyl”, whereby an individual is denied service, rights, or entitlement due to his/her Internet habits, I think we’re all safe for the moment.

PS> Your visit to this site was tracked, aggregated, recorded and preserved for all time using Web analytics software ;)

Should I be worried?

Google knows a lot about me. Let’s start with the copious daily searches for everything from analytics research to stocking stuffers. I use Googlemaps for driving directions to every new location that I visit. My personal blogs are created and maintained on Blogger. They’re tagged with Google Analytics. My iGoogle tab opens each time I launch a new browser with content specific to my interests. My inbox buzzes hourly with Google Alerts on companies that I track. I’ve watched dozens of videos on YouTube. Several years worth of personal emails were sent and received via Gmail to friends, family, colleagues, and every word is archived for easy retrieval.

Now that the FTC approved Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, will my digital world become a bullseye for targeted advertising?