Complete Web Monitoring

Mobility

The majority of devices that can access the Internet today are mobile. That means they’re being used in a wide range of locations in conditions that are strikingly different from the desktops most developers assume. iPhone surfers pinch and tap their way through websites, posing unique usability challenges. Wireless devices suffer from sluggish performance, spotty coverage, and high levels of packet loss.

It’s not just the surfing conditions that change when the Web goes mobile. Now, location is an important factor. Knowing where a user is physically located will determine which content they see and which ads they’re served. Advertisers will want to know which shopping mall a visitor is in so they can tie online traffic to real-world outcomes. Some stores are even launching free Wi-Fi tied to Facebook Connect—a pact in which the visitor reveals his identity in return for Internet access.

Blurring Offline and Online Analytics

Communities will form around locations, much as they coalesce around hashtags today. Transient groups will appear and dissolve as web visitors move from physical location to physical location, and this data will be useful not only for segmentation, but also for mapping social graphs based on physical proximity.

Real-world activities are increasingly tracked online, through devices like the Fitbit or games like Akoha, and they’re changing the way we think about analytics. Networks of sensors will soon collect and share our lives with one-time, tacit approval, ...