14 DAY TRIAL // Google is making some people very happy, as it has finally introduced some sort of integration between FeedBurner and Google Analytics. Considering that the vast majority of users have been more than disappointed by the way Google has handled the feed-management service since it acquired it in 2007, this comes as a sign that Google may be finally getting more involved, though even this first step seems a bit half-backed.
“If you use either AdSense for feeds or Google FeedBurner to track item clicks and also use Google Analytics, as of today, you will automatically start to see your feed item click analytics show up in Google Analytics with some additional information added to help you understand how distributing your feed with FeedBurner leads to traffic on your site,” Steve Olechowski on behalf of the Google FeedBurner team wrote.
There's no reason to celebrate just yet, though, as the integration isn't exactly seamless. In fact, if don't know what you're looking for, you might not even realize it's there. Right now, only the click stats for individual feed items are available and even those take a little digging to get to.
The new stats will show up in both the All Traffic Sources section under Traffic Sources or in the Campaigns view. And, to see only these stats, you have to filter the results by typing “feedburner” in the All Traffic Sources page or just “Feed:” in Campaigns. The data is also available in the Advanced Segments views.
Google plans to add more stats in the coming weeks and the goal is to have a complete picture of how your readers consume the content right down to what feed reader they use. While there isn't that much to be excited about at the moment, it does show that Google may be finally beginning to focus more on FeedBurner, hopefully starting to introduce more features on a regular basis.