Yahoo Acquires IndexTools

Just a short note of congratulations to Dennis Mortensen of IndexTools. The company was acquired by Yahoo as they plan to take on Google Analytics and Microsoft AdCenter Analytics (aka Project Gatineau).

Personally, I never understood why Microsoft chose to build vs. buy. Correction: Dennis kindly reminded me that they bought DeepMetrix.  I still think Yahoo will be able to leapfrog AdCenter in features and functionality. Though not an enterprise class tool, Google is still leading the pack of free vendors.

I’m curious who might step in to fill the mid-market space that IndexTools once occupied. Many people are not comfortable providing any paid search company with their data for fear it could lead to higher CPCs. Plus, it’s unlikely that any of the engines will allow you to import cost data into a competing engine’s analytics tool, which somewhat defeats the purpose of analytics.

Following on the heels of Omnitures acquisition of Visual Sciences, this just goes to show you that web analytics and multivariate testing are hot, hot, hot!

Dennis’ post is here.

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