Microsoft Gatineau – Free Web Analytics Tool

At the start of this year, stories started surfacing on the blogs about Microsoft’s free web analytics tool, codenamed Gatineaue which later on confirmed by Ian Thomas (Director at Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions) on his blog.

Gatineau is the name of the Canadian city where DeepMetrix ( Web Analytics Tool is based on this product) was based for a number of years. Final naming for the product is still unconfirmed.

Yesterday, Ian Thomas has made the first public presentation of Gatinueaue on Web Analytics Day. Ian has also shared some information about the tool on interview with Robin Wauters of Blognation. If you guys are interested in screenshots, the first look of Gatineaue is available on Sam Sethi’s Blognation website.

The invite request line is open for the first beta version of web analytics tool. Ian has confirmed that first beta invitations will be sent before the end of this month. During the beta phase, users of Project Gatineau will be required to create an adCenter account. While use of Project Gatineau is completely free of charge, there is a one-time $5 charge upon creation of an adCenter account. If you already have an adCenter account, you may use the e-mail address associated with that account.

Gatineau will be initially rolled out in English only, and only in countries who have a local adCenter support team.