Month: October 2006

At the “Emetrics Summit”:http://www.emetrics.org/ in Washington DC last Wednesday, Brett Crosby of Google announced the launch of “Google Website Optimizer”:http://services.google.com/websiteoptimizer/, beta. A multivariate testing platform free to those with a “Google Adwords”:https://adwords.google.com/select/Login account, Optimizer allows you to test landing pages or conversion events for not only search engine marketing, but also email, ads or an offline drive-to-web campaign. Sure, this will help Google increase Adwords revenue but it’s a definite win-win for Adwords customers as well. Way to go Google!
I had been in Washington for the Summit since the Saturday before, and after 4 days of very long days and jam-packed sessions, some of our heads were filled to brim. However, we were awake enough to suspect something was up when Brett walked to the podium wearing a suit with his presentation on a flash drive and not preloaded.
Use of the Optimizer is by invitation only. Google will be screening sites before they allow access to the Optimizer. Brett said that they definitely have criteria for admission and I hope that this includes a screening of the readiness of the applicant to do a robust test. There’s nothing more dangerous than an invalid test. Because people tend to have more confidence in test results, they tend to risk more. Taking action on invalid test results can be deadly.