Woopra is a new and upcoming web analytics solution that is somewhat similar in implementation yet differs in the presentation layer. These are my first impressions and thoughts on this new kid on the block and how it compares with the likes of Omniture SiteCatalyst and Google Analytics.

Skip to the bottom line - (Click the images to see full-size renderings)

So what is Woopra, anyway?

From their website, we see the following description: "Woopra is the world's most comprehensive, information rich, easy to use, real-time Web tracking and analysis application. And it's free!" From my understanding, this free is somewhat conditional depending upon the amount of traffic you actually get to your site. As long as you stay under 10,000 Page Views a day, you should have nothing to worry about.

So enough introduction, let's take a look and see what makes Woopra tick. These are the main features and functions of the program (currently running in versions 1.2 beta and 1.3 RC2 beta) that have stuck out to me thus far, and it is by no means a comprehensive list:

• The Woopra desktop client is run in a Java client, which bodes well for running on various platform interfaces, but it does seem to require some heavier resource usage in order to handle the aesthetically pleasing UI.
• The home screen allows you to view a list of all websites accessible under your account while displaying recent news on the right using the industry-standard RSS format. You also have access to basic webmaster tools that measure your sites page ranking in Search Engines as well as simple Domain WHOIS lookup.
  
• It appears to be run in an open API architecture, which has many possibilities for third-party development as time goes on.
• The dashboard page of the program is not customizable as of yet, but it is fairly full-featured in terms of providing the basic useful information for anyone wanting to perform website usage analysis. I am particularly attracted to the stock-quote-ticker-like updates that show delta values for your site's basic metrics (e.g. Bounce Rate and Average Page Views per Visit), but it looks like this was only available in version 1.2 beta. In 1.3 the ticker is replaced by a "Quick Stats" header field that gives you essentially the same information. Not as cool, in my opinion, but it is probably more professional-looking.
• The live view is very snappy and accurate as to who is on your site right in that moment. There is little to no lag there, and I am very impressed by that.
  

  This video is an cool demo of the Live module in action.

  It also sports a unique feature not yet seen in any other analytics system, and that is server-side initiated chats with your website's visitors. You can send an initial message to the visitor that will display a small overlay on the browser with your message. If they accept your chat request, a new pop-up windows will attempt to run an Apache Tomcat JSP servlet to establish a chat connection with you on the other end. I have yet to make it work once, though.

• The reporting and analytics section of the interface is also very user-friendly, and it allows you to view a wide variety of traffic sources ranging from search engines to social media sites. These are all classified for you already, which is also uncommon for most web-analytics solutions. It appears that there is no way to customize these classified reports on traffic sources, which could present problems for Woopra developers to keep up with the wide variety of media/referring sites out there. While version 1.2 does not offer any sort of segmentation on the data, 1.3 RC2 does in fact include low-level segmenting ability, except this part of the interface is not so user-friendly. Reports in both versions also do not auto-refresh or update when new data arrives or the date range is changed. Esentially you need to click the Refresh button whenever you change anything there. There are also limitations to about 1,000 rows of data in no matter what report you pull.
  

Woopra, implemented

Implementing woopra on my site was as simple as coying and pasting a few commands on to the end of each of my pages. They do rely on the newer versions of Javascript, so older or javascript-disabled browsers will simply not show up in Woopra at all. The most interesting aspect about this implementation is the use of an AJAX-like script that sends "pings" to Woopra data collection servers every 10 seconds or so. This allows Woopra to know where every user is at right then and there. I find it to be a very fascinating and bold implementation that addresses concerns of other Web Analytics solutions like Google Analytics and Omniture SiteCatalyst when it comes to visitor time spent on site.

The Bottom Line

So now you've either read or skipped over the in-depth analysis, here it is on the bottom line:

Pros

• Fairly intuitive interface (more so in version 1.2 than 1.3 RC2, in my opinion), I had little to no trouble finding my way around.
• Really fast, really real-time!
• Centralized account settings allow you to view your reports that same way from any machine.
• Time spent on site metrics and full-pathing analysis unlike any other web analytics solution.

Cons

• The limited nature of the implementation prevents Woopra from capturing all traffic like my Omniture SiteCatalyst implementation does.
• No conversion or customizable goal tracking
• Only a limited number of results can be returned, large datasets are not yet supported

Verdict

Google Analytics, watch out! There's a new kid in town, and he's got class that you only wish you had. Woopra may have a ways to go before it is completely polished and ready for distribution, but it is most certainly on the right path so far!