1. Setting up the gadget

When you first install the gadget, choose the profile you want to track and the type of site you have. We ask for this information because you will then be able to compare your KPI with those of similar sites if you choose to share your KPI anonymously. Also note that the gadget does not ask for your Google Analytics password, nor is it technically possible for the gadget to find out your password. The fact that you are logged in at iGoogle allows the browser to access Google Analytics. For this reason, the gadget only works on iGoogle.

2. Default settings

The gadget will show you a set of default KPI. You can select to view KPI based on week-to-week and month-to-month changes. Green and red metrics show you where those KPI are headed.

3. Customize settings

Click on the "Settings" link to customize your gadget. Choose the KPI that are important to you (We will be adding more KPI over time, please let us know if we forgot any that are important to you). Once you have picked the KPI you want to track in the gadget, you can then optionally share those KPI by clicking on the icons in the left column. This will only send the selected KPI and your type of site (e.g. E-commerce > Apparel) to the analyticsindex.com server, where it will be aggregated with the KPI from other gadget users that have the same type of site. No personally identifiable information about you or your site will be collected. The benefit to you is that you can now compare your performance against similar sites.

4. Viewing aggregate information

Those KPI you have chosen to share will now have a red orange icon in the main gadget screen. Hover over the icon to see the aggregate data.

How accurate is the aggregrate data?

We assume that most people have installed Google Analytics properly on their sites. Tagging pages with the Google Analytics tracking code is pretty straightforward and we don't see any reason why people would not try to make a good-faith effort to get good web analytics data. In any case, our service removes outliers, such as KPI that show "0". Most KPI are also quite "robust" in the sense that they won't change much (if at all) if some pages have not been tagged properly. Finally, look at trends rather than absolute values: "what's the trend of the aggregate bounce rate compared to yours?"

Talk a little more about privacy.

We realize that privacy is a very big concern. In a nutshell, we (this website and the gadget) do not collect any personally-identifiable information about you or the sites you track in our gadget. You don't have to register or create an account to use our website or the gadget. The gadget does not ask for your Google Analytics password or a username. Sharing of aggregate, non-personal information is not enabled by default when you install the gadget and you have the choice whether to share any of your KPI in an anonymous way.

The only exception is if you decide the send us an email. Then of course we'll know your email address.