It should come as no surprise that Microsoft announced this week that they would be discontinuing their adCenter Analytics beta program as of the end of 2009. The odd thing is that no real reason was given for the discontinuation.
Introduced in 2007, adCenter Analytics never really established itself in the web analytics field, and rarely, did the Bing Paid Search system, adCenter ever suggest trying out the service or offer incentives to do so.
Another interesting quote from the blog post announcement:
The insights you’ve contributed through your feedback and your use of the tool have served an invaluable purpose in shaping Microsoft’s future in this space. You’ve helped us work towards making an informed decision about building a general Web analytics solution, and despite the end of life plan, the beta was very much a success.
It enabled us to confidently determine that we can be of most value to advertisers and publishers by offering a tailored solution that meets more specialized needs.
While no exact future plans are revealed, this does seem to infer that there are plans for some sort of Microsoft Analytics program at some point in the future. But how important is a future analytics program to Microsoft when they finish the blog with a list of alternative analytics programs, including their biggest competitor in the search industry, Google Analytics (and the Google-owned Urchin)? That is right - Microsoft included Google Analytics to its readers as a valid alternative to their own analytics.
on
Microsoft’s adcenter analytics has not yet left beta, and it seems that it will not ever out of beta, and is unlikely to find a replacement.
on
Microsoft pulled the plug! Its really a disappointing news. Are they reluctant to open adCenter and related services to all? Did they endorse any new alternative? I guess with this move they’re surrendering their US market, as adCenter facility is not widely available outside US.
on
Well, not a surprise really-Microsoft pulling another product off the shelves. Is it an anticipated step from Microsoft as part of its ‘would be-Yahoo deal’. Will they be using Yahoo’s analytics tool kit? Are they planning to rerelease this as a paid gadget…so goes the looming predictions 😉
Tight lipped Microsoft officials one day will answer
on
Without any clear plans to replace this program how come Microsoft made such an idiotic decision. Thanks! At least existing users can access analytics through the end of the year. Microsoft has the liability to clear the fog in this regard, it seems that they’re covering up things from customers, and thats not the way a company like them should work.
on
Good that they kept the BETA tag all along. It certainly made sense now that they have decided to discontinue. 😀
on
By pulling the plug on adCenter Microsoft has made it clear that they don’t want to play in the free web analytics market. One really cannot be a player in the online advertising market today without access to rich visitor data enhanced with conversion data. And adCenter analytics, I must say left a lot to be desired in this respect.
on
Well as you rightly stated at the start, this is no surprise at all. Adcenter always remained in the shadow of Google Analytics, they simply couldn’t match what Analytics was offering to users.