New API: Google Analytics Your Way

Google’s public beta version of its Google Analytics API is now out, allowing developers to create custom reports that can be viewed in a Web browser or on a mobile phone.

The new app provides developers with a standardized platform for integrating analytics data with their own business data and needs, so they can integrate Google Analytics into their existing products or create stand-alone apps that they can sell.

The release of the API comes after a year of private beta testing.

Because the Analytics API is a Google Data API, it uses the same protocols as Google Calendar, Finance and Webmaster tools, according to the Google blog, so it will be familiar to those who have already worked with these APIs.

“For the JavaScript and Java programming languages, we’ve provided client libraries to abstract and simplify the process,” Nick Mihailovski, an analytics specialist at Google, said in a blog post. “We’re also working on supporting more programming languages. In the meantime, for any programming language you want to use you can make requests directly to the API over HTTP and access the data in XML.”

Just being able to view your Web stats without opening Google Analytics is a huge benefit of the new API, according to Rasmus Madsen, CEO of online analytics firm youcalc, which participated in the beta testing,

“You might just want to check on four particular metrics each day, and instead of logging in and clicking 15 to 20 times, you can have your own little custom app running in your browser, iPhone, anywhere” Madsen told InternetNews.com.

Users can also connect to several live data sources — for instance, AdWords, an e-mail campaign manager and revenue info from SalesForce.com — and “mash them up into one integrated analytics app,” Madsen said. Developers can also create a personalized analytics dashboard for iGoogle pages.

Other examples already posted at Google Analytics Labs include a mobilized version of Google Analytics for Android-based phones by Actual Metrics, an Adobe AIR-based desktop app from Desktop Reporting and ShufflePoint, by the company of the same name, which integrates Google Analytics with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.