Update time: July 24, 2023
Google Analytics is a product that Google acquired from other companies.
In Apr 2015, Google acquired Urchin Software Corp, forming Google Analytics, the predecessor of Urchin is Quantified Systems.
Quantified Systems
Quantified Systems was founded in 1995, earlier than Google.
Initially, it mainly provided website development and server hosting in San Diego.
The company’s founder team is as follows:
The founders are Brett Scrosby, Scott Crosby, Paul Muret and ack Ancone.
They found that their customers usually spend up to one day or longer processing data on their own websites, so they hope to have an analysis function that can process one day of data in 15 minutes, which is why Urchin appeared.
It wasn’t until 1997 that Paul developed the first version of Urchin. As a selling point of their service, who would think that the latter will become the main business?
By 1999, the company was renamed Urchin.
Urchin
Urchin is a website analysis tool developed by Urchin Software Corporation. It was renamed from Quantified Systems in 1999. Since Urchin is deeply affected by the market environment, the company’s transformation is mainly based on Urchin.
Urchin became one of the more popular solutions for website traffic analysis.
In Apr 2005, Urchin Software Corp. was acquired by Google. Urchin product became “Urchin from Google” then later simply Google Analytics.
The founder team photos are as follows:
It wasn’t until 1997 that Paul developed the first version of Urchin, because they found that customers typically had to spend up to a day processing their own website data. Therefore, they hope to have an analysis tool that can process the data for one day in 15 minutes, which is why Urchin appears.
The interface of the early Urchin is as follows:
Urchin 2.0:
Urchin 3.0:
Urchin 5.0:
In Apr 2008, Google released Urchin 6. the default UTM (Urchin Traffic Monitor) session timeout is set to 30 minutes of inactivity, Urchin 6.0:
In Feb 2009, Google released Urchin 6.5, integrating Adwords.
In Sep 2010, Google released Urchin 7, included 64-bit support.
In March 2012, Urchin ceased sales.
GA1：Google Analytics（urchin.js)
In Apr 2005, Urchin Software Corp. was acquired by Google. Urchin product became “Urchin from Google,”
In Nov 2005, Google introduced the first version of Google Analytics based on Urchin, Google retained the main javascript file urchin.js when it was released to public for free, due to extremely high demand for the service, new sign-ups were suspended only a week later. As capacity was added to the system, Google began using a lottery-type invitation-code model. The tracking code at this time is as follows:
<!— Sample Urchin Analytics Code -> <script src=”https://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js” type=”text/javascript”></script> <script type=”text/javascript”> _uacct = “UA-XXXXXXX-X”; _userv = 2; urchinTracker(); </script> <— Sample Urchin Analytics –>
In Aug 2006, Invitation system abolished, the service has been fully available to all users.
GA2：Google Analytics Classic（ga.js）
Google Analytics Synchronous Code
In Apr 2007, Google Analytics launch Synchronous Code，the Synchronous GA code had ga.js and PageTracker component in it. The tracking code at this time is as follows:
<—Sample GA Synchronous Code –>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “https://www.”);
document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
try
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-xxxxxx-x”);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>
In May 2007, Google releases new Reporting Interface.
In Oct 2008, Google releases Custom Reports and Advanced Segments.
In Apr 2009, Google releases APIs.
In Jun. 2009, Google releases Event Tracking
In Nov 2009, Google releases Custom Alerts.
Google Analytics Asynchronous Code
In Dec 2009, Google Analytics Launch Asynchronous Tracking that reduces the ga.js latency impact on the page，The two unique components in this version were _gaq.push and ga.js，The tracking code at this time is as follows:
<!—Sample Google Analytics Asynchronous Code –>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push([‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-XXXXXXXX-X’]);
_gaq.push([‘_trackPageview’]); (function() {
var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true;
ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘https://www’) +
‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);})();
</script>
In Aug 2011，Google releases MCF.
In Sep 2011, Google releases Google Analytics Premium and Real-Time
In Oct 2011, Google releases Flow Visualisations.
In Jun 2012, Google releases Content Experiment and GA for Mobile Applications.
In Oct 2012 , Google released Data Import and Google Tag Manager（GTM）
In Dec 2012. The Google Analytics with Display Advertising Code was introduced by Google. The updated GA code had improved features for Remarketing which became helpful for better targeting of Display ads. Also, the Enhanced Link Attribution feature that was introduced in this version offered improved visualisation of clicks in the In-Page Analytics Reports.
<!—Sample Google Synchronous With Display Advertising Code –> <script type=”text/javascript”>
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push([‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-XXXXX-X’]);
_gaq.push([‘_trackPageview’]); (function() {
var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true;
ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://’ : ‘https://’) +’stats.g.doubleclick.net/dc.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
GA3：Google Analytics Universal(analytics.js)
In Oct 2012, Google announced Universal Analytics as the next version of Google Analytics. It uses the ‘analytics.js’ , The key differences from the previous versions were: cross-platform tracking, flexible tracking code to collect data from any device, and the introduction of custom dimensions and custom metrics.the tracking code at this time is as follows:
<!-- Google Analytics --> <script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script> <!-- End Google Analytics -->
Google Analytics with Ecommerce Code
In 2013, Universal Analytics had a dedicated data collection plug-in for e-commerce sites, although Classic Analytics already has similar functions（http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/gaJS/gaJSApiEcommerce.html#_gat.GA_Tracker_._addTrans），The following plug-ins are used in e-commerce:
ga('require', 'ecommerce');
In Mar 2013, Google releases Measurement Protocol.
In Jun 2013, Google releases Attribution Models.
In Sep 2013, As all Google Searches become encrypted using HTTPS, organic keyword data is no longer available in Google Analytics . Everyone begins to see “(not provided)” show up in their GA keyword reports
Google Analytics with Enhanced Ecommerce Code
In May 2014, Google releases Enhanced Ecommerce, the following plug-ins will be used to enhance e-commerce:
ga（'require'，'ec'）
In Mar 2016, Google releases Google Analytics 360, Google Analytics 360 includes five main products: Analytics, Tag Manager, Optimize, Data Studio, Surveys, Attribution, and Audience Center.
In Sep 2016, Google releases Google Analytics Solutions ，including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Optimize, Google Data Studio, Google Survey, Google Attribution, and Google Audience Center.
GA4：Google Analytics 4 (gtag.js)
In Oct 2017 , a new version of Google Analytics was announced, called Global Site Tag，which made Adwords, DoubleClick, and GA all use the same set of rules. Its stated purpose was to unify the tagging system to simplify implementation The tracking code at this time is as follows:
<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics --><script src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-XXXXX-X" async=""></script><script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-69988360-20');
</script>
In Jun 2018, Google releases Google Marketing Platform, It consists of two former brands of Google, DoubleClick Digital Marketing and Google Analytics 360.
In Aug 2018, Google releases Google Signals.
In Sep 2019, Google releases APP+Web , which can simultaneously track the APP and the Web, and aggregate the data of the two into the same property, this is to replace the SDK tracked by the Google Analytics Standard Edition APP, under the standard version of the SDK. It will be deactivated in months.
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-XXXXX-X"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-69988360-20');
</script>
In Oct 2019, the attribution module went offline and entered the beta.
In Dec 2019, APP+Web adds Enhanced E-commerce functions.
In Oct 2020, Google releases Google Analytics 4，it was renamed from APP+Web.
In Aug 2021, Google releases Google Analytics 4 360.
In Jul 2023, all free Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits, Data processing has been phased out.
In Jul 2024, all GA360（UA Version） properties will stop processing new hits.
