Urchin 6 Finally In Beta!

Urchin announced its acquisition by Google approximately 3 years ago.

I’d been in talks with Urchin prior to the acquisition and had installed a trial version of the software.

The main difference between the Urchin software and the SAAS was that one is installed on your server and reads your logs (a bit like Awstats) while the other uses a bit of Javascript in your pages to track results.

Urchin 6 was “coming soon” back in 2005, but the Google acquisition buried it.

Now, almost three years later, it looks like Google has finally decided to brush off the cobwebs and relaunch the software with a 3 month beta.

They’ve made available an installable version for Linux, Free BSD and Windows (not Vista – but that’s not a server OS, so you wouldn’t expect them to).

With a price tag of US$2995 (which will probably be a LOT higher in the EU!) it will be interesting how people react to this “new” venture from Google.

At least they won’t be selling it directly, but will instead be relying on a network of partners.

I’m currently downloading the Linux version to see if much has changed in the last 3 years and will hopefully be able to report on my progress (or lack thereof) in the coming days.

It might be a little too late, as products like Sawmill, which offer similar functionality, cost a fraction of the price and can be bought directly from the developers. They also have a better track record of customer support than Google.

In any case an alternative to Google Analytics, be that Sawmill or the “new” Urchin should be welcomed by those who are concerned by Google’s “big brother” position. Being able to keep details of traffic private wouldn’t be such a bad thing!