Userfly

Yesterday we had an interesting discussion in Web Analytics. Dr. Liddle introduced to us Userfly (http://userfly.com/). It's an interesting concept as it sort of takes a different direction in web analytics. What makes this unique is that instead of gathering data for certain "clicks" or actions a user does (i.e. like how Google Analytics or SiteCatalyst does), it actually records a user's acutal session. I think this could be very useful since you can actually "see" what a user does on your site.

While this sounds amazing in itself, there are a few drawbacks. For one, it would take forever to watch all the sessions that hit your site. Also, there currently is no way to filter the vidoes effectively. So, while you may have tons of "hits" you may have only a few videos that are actually worth watching. Another drawback is that even if you do get some good videos, it may take some time until you see trends of some sort.

As with all new technology, there are some flaws. However, I believe there is a lot of potential in Userfly. This could be the next big thing in Web Analytics as it is definetely more visual that other analytic tools.