14 DAY TRIAL // An uncanny Google Analytics glitch drives users mad and at the time this article was written, no Google official came out to explain what happened. Here's the problem in a few words: webmasters who logged into their Google Analytics in the last few days spotted a shocking report: 0 (zero) direct visitors, which, for most of them, is impossible. Moreover, other users recorded huge direct traffic losses, somewhere near 80 percent, which obviously means thousands of visitors.
According to users' statements, the problems appeared near April 30th when most of them spotted unusual reports provided by Google Analytics.
"I'm noticing what looks like Google Analytics dropping data starting April 30th. Revenue is at year lows for all of these sites. Can someone confirm before I throw myself in front of a bus?", portentint, a WebmasterWorld member, called for help on the forums. "For us Direct traffic has an 80% drop since 01.05.08! 80% = 80 000 unique visitors...", Mentat, another user, confirmed the problem.
Moreover, a Google Groups topic comes to confirm there's something wrong with Google Analytics because, that's right, the issue still exists today, May 6th 2008.
After digging a little bit and reading some users' opinions, we have found an interesting correlation: on April 30th, the day when most users started to see their Analytics reports go crazy, the Mountain View-based company rolled out a private beta of Google Analytics for Blogger, which allows bloggers to track their blog traffic. Sure, nobody can tell for sure if this is a cause for the glitch but since the company didn't provide an official explanation, it's only up to speculation.
As mentioned, Google let the webmasters investigate the glitch on their own and avoided explaining the problem. However, portentint, a WebmasterWorld forum member, said he contacted a Google Analytics representative who informed him that there was something wrong with the service but the reports were the only ones affected while the data remained untouched. "Once they correct the problem we should have all the data", he said.
So, in case you're experiencing the same problem, you're advised to wait a little bit until Google fixes it and provides an explanation for the frenzy.