Microsoft plans to launch a beta test program for its forthcoming "Gatineau" Web analytics tool as soon as this summer, a company official said on his Internet blog.
Ian Thomas, of Microsoft's Digital Advertising Solutions Group, said in the posting that the program will be open to a limited number of beta testers "so you may have to wait to be admitted."
Microsoft is designing Gatineau to compete with products from Google, Omniture, and other vendors in the market for software that allows businesses to create detailed traffic reports for their Web sites. The company hasn't released a final ship date for Gatineau.
In his blog, Thomas let slip a number of other details about the product.
"Beta 1 will include the ability to segment data by both age and gender buckets, so you can get more of an idea of what kind of visitors you have," Thomas wrote in a posting that appeared over the weekend.
Thomas said Gatineau gathers Web visitor data anonymously and doesn't collect any personally identifiable information such as names or e-mail addresses.
Thomas wrote that he wanted to divulge more information about the product, but joked that "my implant started beeping.
"Will be back once I've checked with legal," he wrote.
Gatineau is just one of several efforts that Microsoft has undertaken of late to increase its footprint in the market for Web advertising tools and services.
In May, the company said it had acquired Screen Tonic SA, a European manufacturer of software designed to connect online advertisers with users of mobile phones and other digital devices. Last week, Microsoft announced a partnership with Ask.com under which customers of Microsoft's paid search program will see their listings appear on sites operated by Ask.com and its partners.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment