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NetTracker Log File Analysis vs. Page Tagging

A Guide for Comparing

Web Analytics Methodologies

1-800-407-3570 www.sane.com

Copyright © 2003 Sane Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved.

http://www.sane.com/

NetTracker log file analysis vs. page tagging

1-800-407-3570

Introduction Over time different methodologies have been developed for analyzing Web site traffic trends and visitors’ online behavior—log file analysis, packet sniffing and most recently, page tagging. It is important not to get side-tracked by too much hype surrounding any one methodology. For instance, a few years ago, there was much buzz surrounding packet sniffing solutions, however, for the most part, this technology has fallen by the wayside. Now, vendors are pushing their page-tagging methodology. Solutions come and go. Log file analysis however, remains the tried and true, market-proven and sustained method for accurate Web site analysis that grows with your Web analytics needs. Not all log file analysis solutions are created equal, perhaps creating some confusion about log file analysis methodology. Unlike the simple log file analysis solutions of yesteryear, NetTracker® is a breed set apart from the rest by more advanced and comprehensive analysis capabilities, and is developed by Sane Solutions, an expert in the log file analysis solution market since 1996. To aid in sorting through the differences in the two Web analytics methodologies dominating the market today—log file analysis and page tagging—this document first explains how each methodology gathers and makes Web site traffic and online behavior data available. It then compares the two methodologies side-by-side to help you determine which solution meets both your short- and long-term needs. If you are too short on time to read the next thirteen pages, give us a call at 1-800-407-3570 (+01-401-295-4809 outside the US and Canada) and we will quickly review the most important highlights with you. NetTracker Log File Analysis Methodology NetTracker log file analysis methodology consists of parsing and cleansing the log files which are created when a visitor requests any page from a Web server or e-commerce application server. NetTracker analyzes the valuable data in those log files, transforms it into a database to facilitate reporting and generates reports by reading this data. Thanks to this database backend, NetTracker also enables business users to repeatedly query their Web site traffic data warehouse in an investigative manner. Consequently, business users are able to extract the most value from their data and can go beyond Web site measurements to mining data for online channel optimization. When most people think of log file analysis they think of basic “old school” log analyzers. NetTracker is not of this genre. Some of the features that set NetTracker apart from basic log analyzers are the fact that it stores the Web data in a database, as explained above, and comes with free optional Web server plug-ins for tracking cookies, server performance and aborted page views. In addition, NetTracker allows users to parse additional data written to log files to extend analysis. An ironic example of this is the use of NetTracker to analyze page-tag data, the data in log files from image files requested by page tags. Another differentiator is the NetTracker eBusiness Edition’s open database schema which provides users with access to their Web site traffic data warehouse. Log file analysis can be viewed as being like an exchange system in that the Web content is not given out to any Web site visitors without first taking note of the required analytical information, in the log files.

Copyright © 2003 Sane Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 1 of 13 www.sane.com


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Page-Tagging Methodology The page-tagging methodology consists of inserting a different graphic or script tag on each page of your Web site that you wish to track. Page-tagging solutions keep track of how many times each tag is sent or script is executed, which tells them how many times each page was requested. Unlike log file analysis, which relies on data collected and stored on the Web servers, page tagging collects data that must be received back from the client’s Web browser. Page-tagging solutions heavily rely on JavaScript, the consequences of which you will read more about below. In addition, page-tagging solutions are often managed by a third party. Therefore, in order to be able to track return visitors they have to rely on third-party cookies from the client. Page tagging can be viewed as being like the honor system in that it relies on the client (visitor) voluntarily providing the analytical information requested. The accountability of page tagging therefore is not equal to log file analysis which follows the aforementioned exchange system.

Understanding the difference between an ASP solution and a page-tagging solution Page tagging is often offered as a hosted service (ASP model). For that reason many people associate the ASP model of Web analytics with the page-tagging implementation methodology for Web analytics. The two should not, however be used interchangeably. An ASP model simply means that the solution is hosted and does not imply one methodology or the other (log file analysis or page tagging). In fact, some log file analysis solutions, including NetTracker, are offered as ASP (hosted) solutions. When making your decision to use a solution with page-tagging data collection methodology versus log file analysis collection methodology, put the software/service decision aside, since both methodologies are available with either delivery option. First, consider what you gain or lose from a solution that uses log file analysis versus page tagging. The methodology is where data accuracy, reporting flexibility, solution comprehensiveness and future expandability are determined. Your decision to include or exclude your IT department and pay upfront or monthly comes later (based on your choice of a software or service solution).



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Comparing the Methodologies, Side-by-Side

OUTSOURCED PAGE-TAGGING TECHNOLOGY

NETTRACKER: ADVANCED COMPREHENSIVE LOG FILE

ANALYSIS TECHNOLOGY

Data Collection and Accuracy User Identification To identify individual visitors, outsourced page-tagging technology relies on the ability to set a third-party cookie in order to track unique visitors accurately. The third-party cookie acts as the identifier for each session and return visit. However, often corporate policy prevents the use of third-party cookies, as they are the kind of cookies that have led to privacy violations in the past. Visitors also can prevent the use of third-party cookies by not enabling them in their browser. European visitors are well known to be even more averse to these issues than US users. In these instances, page-tagging solutions must resort to use of an IP address for identification. The use of an IP address alone can result in extremely inaccurate individual visitor counts, which can skew your results tremendously. Authenticated usernames are the most accurate way of tracking individual visitors, yet are not even an option in page-tagging solutions.

NetTracker uses a number of methodologies to identify a session (unique visit): authenticated username if one is available; cookie (or cookie fragment) if your organization opts to use them and they are enabled in the visitor’s browser; parameter value (e.g., BroadVision session ID) in pages, query strings, cookies, cookie fragments, or user-defined fields; or a combination of IP address and user agent (browser and platform). NetTracker can much more accurately identify a session (unique visit) then any solution that relies solely on cookies or IP address alone as a back up. NetTracker can accurately sessionize visits even across geographically dispersed servers and time zones.

Reliability With page-tagging solutions visit information is relayed to a third party’s host server for tracking. If that tracking server is down (cannot be reached due to network issues, a server crash, etc.), then visits will not be tracked and information is lost forever. When visits are not tracked, costs (like load to the server) and revenues (like banner impressions and clickthroughs) can not be tracked. It is possible for visitors to visit the

NetTracker tracking can never be “down”. If the Web server generating the logs is down it is impossible to visit the site (there is nothing to track). With NetTracker log analysis there is no third party server and hence no risky dependency. NetTracker provides a direct reflection of



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Web site, but they are completely invisible to the analytics, tainting the accuracy and accountability of the analytics provided. The reliability of page tagging also lies in human hands. Page tagging requires human instrumentation. Someone has to add the JavaScript code to all pages that they would like to track. Any page that is missing a tag will not be tracked.

what happened on the Web site. With NetTracker there is no manual instrumentation to be double-checked to ensure that data will not be missed. The log files that NetTracker is analyzing will track all page visits, not just a select few that have been instrumented.

Page View Accuracy Page abandonment occurs not only if the visitor presses the Web browser’s stop button before the page load is completed, but also if the visitor moves on to the next page before a page is completely loaded and the page-tag has fired. Other causes for page abandonment can be technical issues on the Web servers that cause a delay or interruption. Since information can only be relayed to page-tagging servers after a page download is fully completed, abandoned pages cannot be tracked using the page-tagging method of Web analysis. Page tagging will undercount page views in this situation. As a workaround, the page tag could be placed first on the page, such that it fires before the page has been loaded. However, now the page-tagging solution will over-count page views whenever a page view has been unsuccessful due to the page not loading satisfactorily. Furthermore, the page tag, which is often 40 lines of code or more and involves additional Internet look-ups, will cause a delay, though perhaps minimal, in the page loading. Redirects (links) are also not captured by page-tagging solutions. If the first request to a Web site involves a redirect, the referrer information, critical information for any Web marketer, will be lost.

NetTracker log analysis, in contrast, will track visitor behavior even if a page load is abandoned, eliminating that concern. One especially useful application of abandoned page analysis is to plot the portion of aborted pages over time. This will reveal the effect of high Web site traffic volumes on the performance of the Web site. If there is a large potion of aborted pages when traffic volumes are high than it can be derived that the Web site’s poor performance is decreasing visitor satisfaction. Every page view, even abandoned or interrupted page loads, provides you with valuable usability information. NetTracker reliably tracks redirects (links) and all of the valuable information associated with visits that include a redirect.



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Visit Accuracy Page tagging usually relies on JavaScript and third-party cookies. Many WAP browsers do not support JavaScript, image retrieval or cookies. That means that wireless Web site visits are not tracked by page-tagging solutions. Due to a proliferation of browser vulnerabilities that involved JavaScript, many security-conscious users disable JavaScript. More recently, many Internet users disable JavaScript options to avoid receiving pop up advertisements (an estimated 3% of Internet users.) JavaScript is disabled in Windows Server 2003. With JavaScript turned off, most page-tagging solutions generate very little tracking information. Vital information such as referrer, query string parameters, content groups, etc. is missing.

NetTracker provides analysis of wireless Web site traffic without any limitations. Since NetTracker does not rely on JavaScript, NetTracker is not impacted when Web browsers do not support JavaScript or when users disable JavaScript.

Non-HTML View Accuracy Most non-HTML pages (such as documents, banners, downloaded files) will not contain JavaScript or image tags, and therefore cannot be tracked by page-tagging solutions. With the proliferation of PDFs and media clips, this can be a major stumbling block for page-tagging systems.

NetTracker log file analysis reports on all pages viewed, not just HTML-based pages. NetTracker can report file downloads with ease.

Ability to Track Robots and Spiders Robots and spiders are sent by search engines to index your site. Search engine presence is essential to the success of any Web site. In order to optimize your site for search engines’ robots and spiders you need to track whether your key pages are being visited by all of the leading robots and spiders. Page-tagging solutions do not analyze traffic from robots and spiders because robots and spiders do not

NetTracker is designed to distinguish between the constantly-changing list of robots and spiders that visit your site and the live visitors visiting your site. NetTracker removes robots and spiders from live visitor counts in NetTracker reports. However, NetTracker also provides separate reporting of just robot and spider visits. This NetTracker reporting plays an important role



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load the transparent image tag or support JavaScript.

in analyzing your search engine optimization efforts, a role that page-tagging solutions are unable to provide.

Site Performance and Error tracking

Even new Web site analysts use Web analytics solutions to identify error messages being received by visitors on the Web site. However, unless the server uses custom error pages that include JavaScript, errors will not be recorded by page-tagging solutions. And even with the custom pages, the errors will be counted as page views, not errors. As previously indicated, JavaScript reliance (here for error tracking) is risky. Finally, the page-tagging solution is unable to report whether there were any instances of server errors not trapped by the custom error pages, because no page tags will be sent in that case. Also, server performance cannot be tracked by page-tagging solutions.

When a potential prospect comes to your Web site, you want to keep them on the site as long as possible to increase the chance that they will complete an online form, make an online purchase and so on. One of the easiest things to do to prevent visitors from abandoning your Web site is to detect and correct broken or missing links within your Web site. Likewise, one of the easiest things to do to keep increasing the number of prospects that visit your Web site is to ensure that links from other Web sites (some of which you may have even paid for to attract visitors to your site) are working. NetTracker reports each of the requested files or pages that visitors attempted to view, but instead received an error message. Tracking server performance provides a warning if server problems develop during peak traffic conditions and helps in planning for site expansion. Free optional NetTracker Web server plug-ins allow NetTracker users to track server performance. Server performance tracking also provides you with the number of aborted page requests that likely result from poor server performance.

Ability to Audit the Numbers There are times when results reported by any Web analytics solution may seem inaccurate. Page-tagging technology prevents users from auditing report results; users cannot count page tags because they go directly from a client to the third-party vendor.

With NetTracker reports, users can audit the reports by comparing the results with what is available in the log files. In addition, NetTracker’s backend database allows business users to audit the numbers in



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any report by simply drilling down to the visits and clickstreams behind those numbers.

Data Manipulation, Reporting Flexibility and Comprehensiveness Adjustable Data Analysis With page tagging, information can only be collected as it happens. If data is not configured to be collected, it is lost forever. If a certain parameter is not tracked the first time around with page tagging, it cannot be added later. This ability is particularly important when external data needs to be integrated. For instance, if a business analyst decides that product categories have become an important metric but only product types and prices were passed to the page tagging server on orders to date, there is no way to retrieve product categories on past orders. Page tagging is not forgiving if you have made an oversight in data needed or if you later adjust your analytics needs.

NetTracker offers complete flexibility when you want to adjust your analysis. Since all of the data is always collected, it can be retrieved at any time by reprocessing your log files. For instance, in the example to the left, the log file data could easily be reprocessed to report on any parameter previously missed.

Historical Data Comparisons If you are serious about analyzing visit trends or the Web site improvements that you have made, you will need to compare historical data to current data. With page tagging, data history only starts with the implementation of the page-tagging solution, since information can only be collected as it happens.

NetTracker enables any amount of historical data to be tracked and compared to current data. With NetTracker, log files from before the software installation can be viewed just as easily as new log file data.

Ad Hoc Reporting Many page-tagging solutions offer only static reports containing basic statistics. However,

NetTracker is full of self-service options for end-users to obtain speed-of-thought online



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Web analytics users have unique, unpredictable questions about their Web site visitors based on the decisions they need to make for their organization — which e-mail campaigns to continue, how much of each product to manufacture next year, which services to offer each prospect, which browsers to optimize the site for, which content to include on the employee bulletin board. While some page-tagging solutions do allow some customized analysis, customized reports must be run by the vendor and therefore come at a significant cost. In addition, users must wait for the vendor to run the customized reports.

behavior analysis. As quickly as users can think of a question about their visitors’ online behavior, NetTracker can help them reach that information through custom and ad hoc reporting features such as scenario (funnel) reporting, path reporting, crosstab reporting, trend reporting and general ad hoc reporting. The benefit of this functionality is that business users can dive deeper into a report in order to understand what is causing a sudden spike or dip in the report, for example. Business users can investigate the behavior of interesting target groups on-the-fly, such as the visitors who were attracted by a certain promotion. Through this investigative analysis business users can go beyond measurement to Web site optimization, and to identifying opportunities such as cross-selling.

Ability to Integrate It doesn’t take long before you realize that online behavior is even more valuable when analyzed in conjunction with all of your other business data – product information, customer information, financial information and more. In order to perform integrated analysis however, you need to be able to easily grab your Web data from a data warehouse for that integration. Since your page-tagging vendor likely has control of your data, this is not an easy task. In rare instances your page-tagging vendor will be willing to help with this integration, however that service typically comes at a hefty price tag. In addition, the integrated analysis is being performed in a point solution outside of the standard solution your organization typically performs business analysis in.

NetTracker leaves the road wide open for you to perform integrated analysis using a method that best suits you. Unlike other Web analytics solutions, NetTracker has an open database schema which provides you with easy access to your Web data in the NetTracker Web data warehouse. This functionality makes it the ideal solution for integrating your Web data with any other business data in any third party solution such as a business intelligence (BI), customer relationship management (CRM), sales force automation (SFA), or contact management tool. After all, your company has probably already standardized your other analysis on one of these solutions. There are corporate-wide strategic benefits to integration; NetTracker customers leverage their online channel behavioral information throughout their enterprises to improve ROI. For example, Administaff cut their sales cycle in half by viewing prospects’ online interests through their sales contact management database. Cinergy reduced customer service costs by



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combining NetTracker’s visitor information with their call center logs. A market-leading auto manufacturer is able to better forecast next month’s demand by cross-referencing visitors’ online selections with their product database.

End-User Abilities - Dependence or Independence? With a page-tagging solution, you are completely dependent on someone else. If you want to change or add to what you are tracking, it requires having your vendor change the existing tags or adding new tags. (Once again, you can’t ask new questions of the data that has already been collected; you can only ask forward-looking questions.) If you use one of the few page-tagging vendors that offers custom reporting, the vendor must run the custom reports for you. Most of us want the independence to manipulate our solutions on our own so that when we need data, we can get data.

NetTracker reports offer on-the-fly analysis to the end-users, providing NetTracker users with the most independence available in a Web analytics solution. NetTracker users do not have to depend on their IT department or on a third party vendor because all of the data is being stored at all times in the NetTracker database which is instantly queried by the NetTracker reporting interface. When an end user wants a different slice of data or to customize a report to answer a burning question, they can get it instantly using any of NetTracker’s custom reporting features. No logs have to be reprocessed; no tags have to be added. That is a key NetTracker differentiator: instant custom reporting.

Dynamic Content Analysis Page-tagging solutions require a Web developer to code and submit any descriptive information needed to decipher what a page viewed contained. While this may be straightforward at times, at other times it falls short of real world complexities. For example, the product hierarchy of a major retailer is going to be multiple levels deep, requiring additional information to be transferred during page views.

NetTracker provides some of the most comprehensive features for analyzing e-commerce application server logs. E-commerce applications such as BroadVision and IBM WebSphere serve dynamically-generated contentpages which can have URLs that look like this: http://www.departmentstore.com/ homepage.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@ 0242089744.1039482719@@@@&BV_ EngineID=ccjeadcgmgmhmgicehgcem gdffmdflk.0&vertical=FK& content=sku,12131,cookieID,789132 All that cryptic information in the URL might simply mean that the page features a blue suedewinter boot. If your Web site serves dynamically-generated content to your visitors,



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you will need a Web analytics solution which will report products and content viewed in a way that is meaningful to you. NetTracker contains a.) URL search and replace capabilities to automatically cleanse and tune your dynamic URLs, b.) parameter parsing capabilities to parse the valuable information (configured parameters) from those URLs, and c.) free data conduits which not only lookup up those parameters (such as an SKU number) in a database where product information (such as SKU number 12131 = blue suede winter boot) is located, but also place that meaningful product name in the NetTracker report. NetTracker supports all e-commerce application servers so that instead of seeing a meaningless dynamic URL in your reports, you see something like “blue suede winter boot”.

Data Collection Interchangeability Most page-tagging solutions do not offer log file analysis capabilities as a means of adding additional data (such as historical data) that would not otherwise be available in their reports.

To provide users with the ability to add additional data to their Web analysis, NetTracker allows users to implement page tags (which add an additional line to the log file for NetTracker to extract and report on) for additional data, such as client browser resolution. Page tag logs can be analyzed by NetTracker.

The Effects of Traffic Growth and User Sophistication Hardware High-traffic sites require significant hardware power to support a Web analytics solution. Page-tagging solutions are most often offered as hosted services. While this may help you avoid purchasing additional hardware, the cost of the hardware your solution provider needs for your Web site will be passed on to you in additional monthly fees. Watch out for

If your organization doesn’t own the hardware to support NetTracker consider leasing that hardware. Prices are very competitive. An analysis of outsourced page-tagging solutions’ monthly fees comparted to a one-time upfront NetTracker software purchase plus the monthly cost of leased hardware to accompany it, reveals that in less than one



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rapidly increasing monthly fees as your Web site traffic grows.

year NetTracker is often much less expensive.

Dependence Page-tagging solutions that are provided as a service mean that you are constantly dependent on your third party vendor. As your Web analytics needs become more sophisticated, frequent, and expand to more pages, you are dependent on your vendor to add more tags, create more custom reports, etc., all of which come with additional hefty, escalating fees.

The NetTracker user is completely independent. End users are completely empowered to make all custom reports, edit all settings, etc. NetTracker users only require their IT department for a one time, easy installation (on-site installation is included with the NetTracker eBusiness Edition). NetTracker reports are typically set to update automatically. Nothing needs to be reprocessed for a new custom report.

Affordable Scalability As the amount of Web site traffic you are analyzing increases, so does the scalability needed to analyze it. Scalability in page-tagging solutions often comes with a hefty, escalating monthly price tag.

The NetTracker eBusiness Edition uses your choice of a backend database: Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle or DB2, making it a robust, scalable solution. NetTracker analyzes multiple gigabytes of log file data per day for Global 2000 organizations and supports load-balanced Web sites with an unlimited number of clustered servers (no extra server fees). There are no monthly fees with NetTracker.

Avoiding the “Lock In” Sometimes you begin using a solution only to find out their methodology doesn’t suit your needs at all. As your level of sophistication increases, you realize that a solution might have limitations that you didn’t understand when you were first shopping for a solution. For that reason, most organizations try to avoid any solutions or methodologies that lock them into a particular vendor. Page-tagging solutions’ tags are not compatible with other solutions. If you chose to switch away from your page-tagging vendors you will be up against two issues. First, you will need to make sure that they will give you access to your historical data. Second, you will probably

Nothing about NetTracker ties you to Sane Solutions forever. NetTracker’s advanced log file analysis methodology leaves you with the ability to always reanalyze your data if you choose to switch vendors.



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not be able to analyze or re-analyze that historical data using another new vendor’s solution. Most organizations do not want to be stuck with an inability to compare current data to historical data.

Risk Security Page-tagging solutions are most often offered only as hosted solutions. One problem with a hosted solution is that it takes the control of your data out of your hands. The unavoidable act of data transfer to the third party opens you up to a security risk during the information send. In addition, your data becomes subject to the third party’s security policies. You will also need to feel secure in how the vendor will treat your data if you opt to no longer use them as a vendor, as well as in what will become of your data if they go out of business. And in either scenario you also need to ensure that you get your data.

With NetTracker log file analysis software, you maintain control of your data. Your Web data, customer data, product information and financial information is not transferred and warehoused outside your company. This ensures that your Web data is handled according to your own internal security policies.

Data Control The most sophisticated Web analysis needs require integrating your Web data with other business data – customer data, financial data, etc. If your page-tagging solution is a hosted solution, you are also reliant on that third party vendor for access to the data for integration needs.

With the NetTracker eBusiness Edition, you maintain control of your own data, making it easy for you to integrate your Web data with other business data. In addition, the eBusiness Edition’s open database schema relieves you of building your own data warehouse from data feeds that are sometimes offered by outsourced page-tagging vendors. As any data warehousing expert will confirm, the task of assembling data feeds to a data warehouse is the most effort-consuming aspect of building an analytical solution. That task is already accomplished by the eBusiness Edition.



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Conclusion The risks of using page tagging for Web analysis are too persistent to ignore. The page-tagging methodology relies too heavily on uncontrollable factors in the Web data collection process— tag placement, JavaScript, third-party cookies, third-party servers—and therefore leaves the door wide open for inaccurate analysis of your Web site traffic. Too many departments in your enterprise depend on accurate online channel data on which they will base business decisions that will change the course of your business. In addition, the page-tagging methodology leaves you dependent on an outside vendor for everyday reporting, locks you into one vendor unless you are willing to leave historical data (necessary for trend reporting) behind and opens you up to security risks—all situations that dis-empower you. You also take a financial leap of faith with ASP-model page-tagging solutions. Monthly service charges quickly escalate as you expand the number of pages you wish to track, your visitors’ page views increase, you demand more scalability, you begin to need custom reporting, or you want to integrate your Web data with other customer, financial or product data. NetTracker uses market-proven technology to capture all of your visitors’ online behavior. Regardless of whether you have Web server logs, page-tagging server logs, or e-commerce application server logs, NetTracker captures the information necessary for complete, accurate analysis of your Web site traffic. NetTracker empowers every end user within your enterprise to perform instant ad hoc analysis of their Web data for immediate answers to their business questions. NetTracker keeps the door open for you to easily switch vendors if you are so inclined. NetTracker puts you in control of your data. The disadvantages of using page tagging for Web analysis outweigh any advantages touted by page-tagging vendors. After you examine all of the facts, we believe that you will find that NetTracker is the more detailed, dynamic, integratable, scalable, reliable and affordable Web analytics solution.

NetTracker® is a registered trademark of Sane Solutions, LLC. Other product names are trademarks of their respective owners.


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