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by PaulStatezny 671 days ago
> Now I wish Google had never touched them.

Would you be willing to elaborate?

2 comments

After the switch to Google Analytics the heat map feature was dropped pretty quickly and it was one of the features I really enjoyed. I also think it would have been better for us in the long run to have paid for a service that let us maintain control over our data.
Yandex Metrica has free heatmap
I don’t think “Google bad” needs elaboration in 2024.
Many of the things people think are bad about Google in 2024 (trackers, targeting, slurping up user data, etc) came from Urchin.
The bad IMO originated from double click
I'm not so sure.

Google already had a reputation for slurping up user data, even in 2008 before they bought DoubleClick. It's a no brainer that a targetted advertising company can target ads better if they have as much information about the users as possible.

In 2008, DoubleClick's over the top, obnoxious advertising (banner ads, punch the monkey, etc.) was slowing down in favor of Google's more discrete advertising and data collection. They may have caught on and turned it around eventually, but Google bought them up first.