Mar 01, 2021 06:00:00

'You shouldn't use Google Analytics, even if it's free and convenient'

In addition to search engines, Google offers a variety of services for free, including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Analytics, and Google Sheets. However, as it has been said for a long time that 'there is nothing more expensive', there is a reason why it is offered for free, and web application developer

Casper Brede said, 'Google Analytics is offered for free. It has been, but you should stop using it. '

Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast | Caspar von Wrede
https://casparwre.de/blog/stop-using-google-analytics/

In recent years, Google has become a huge multinational company rather than a small, quirky company that runs search engines. Google's main business is not a search engine or the development of productivity tools, but the operation of a huge advertising platform.

Many of Google's products have an overwhelming market share. For example , as of January 2021, Google Chrome's share of the web browser market was 63.5%, far ahead of second-placed Firefox (19.45%). In the smartphone OS market , Android, which is led by Google, has the largest share with 71.93%.

Although there is a competitor called Facebook, Google has rapidly expanded its online advertising business based on the success of Chrome and Android. Google's revenue in 2016 was $ 90 billion, while its revenue in 2020 was about $ 180 billion. This means that revenue has doubled in just four years.

But while Google's rapid growth will bring wealth to investors, it's not always good for the average consumer, Brede argues.

For example, news articles on the Internet have Clickbait headlines and cookie banners, and a large number of ads appear at the top of the page. Brede says all this happened because of Google.

The advertising business is also making the search engine, which was Google's core business, harder for consumers to use. The image below summarizes the changes in inventory displayed in Google search results from 2003 to 2019. Over the years, Brede points out that it's getting harder to distinguish between Google search results and inventory.

'Most of Google's products are free, and most of them are very useful and great, but they exist to suck up more data and grow the advertising industry even further,' said Brede. Google's business model is 'surveillance capitalism,' which finds economic value in the personal data it collects.

Google Analytics is a statistical tool for websites provided by Google. Over 53% of all sites on the Internet use Google Analytics to track their visitors.

In addition, 84% of sites that use known analytics scripts use Google Analytics, and Google Analytics-related requests are said to account for 0.64% of all network requests.

'Google Analytics is free. It's very nice and everyone uses it, but it's actually a bloated script that affects the speed of the site, and for the majority of site owners. It doesn't have to be, and it requires a broader privacy policy and annoying prompts that make the site's user experience worse. Above all, the data isn't accurate because it's blocked by things like Firefox. '.

by Daniel_Afanador

'Web developers are morally required to consider the free tools they use in their development. Google Analytics is superficially free and very useful, but we can't see it,' Brede said. You're paid for it. '' If you want to improve the world, you should stop feeding the beast called Google. '